If the IRS rate is 14¢/mile, that means two things:
You may take the amount you are reimbursed less than that as a charitable deduction. The full 14¢ if you get nothing. If you get reimbursed 10¢, the remaining 4¢ is a charitable deduction.
If you are reimbursed more than that, the excess must be declared as income. If you get 25¢, that's 11¢ per mile of income.
The reality is that doing your taxes is more complicated than that, and there are additional rules to follow when declaring the contribution/income. Consult a tax expert, which I am not. (Go ask H&R Block, a good KC based company! )
I believe that the IRS reimburses at .14 cents on your yearly returns, but you would have to check with a tax attorney or with the IRS themselves. As long as you have kept accurate logs, I'm pretty sure that you can vote in a fair amount. I would seriously take heed that it is not above any federal or state amounts, otherwise it could be considered payment for services. I'm not an attorney or tax agent, so I would check before I brought it up to my group.
The IRS rate of 14 cents is just what THEY allow if someone wants to claim volunteer mileage on their taxes. As far as I know, it's not required for anything else. As MetzMom said, she was just citing it as one example. If it were me, I'd probably push for a higher rate that was a more fair representation.
You guys (gals) are great!!! I feel so much better knowing that I'm not the only one that feels this way.
The Assistant Principal really made me feel like a cad when I asked about this. Like a person wasn't a true volunteer if they asked to be reimbursed for gas.
Thanks to all of you, now I know: a) it's not illegal, and b) I'm not awful for asking for gas money for our people who make these 120+ mile trips.
Do I understand the last 2 posters correctly in that we don't "have" to use the IRS amount of .14? It can be whatever reasonable amount our group votes on?
Our next meeting is Monday, and I'm gonna bring this up.
You are absolutely right about the amount. I just used the charitable rate as an example. I think the amount should be discussed and voted on at a meeting. The IRS uses .14 cents, the goverment uses .35 cents, jury duty uses .32 cents... maybe use the average of all 3 (.27 cents). Make sure your reimbursees(?) know that if they get reimbursed, that they shouldn't take the gas they used as a tax write off.
I know that the next question will be "What if I don't have the gas and need to make a run?". Well, I personally think that is why groups should have a petty cash fund. Having $25 on hand for such events is, in my opinion, a very worthwhile idea. It is never enough to really do anything, except 'fronting' small amounts of cash for things like gas. It does have to be payed back in the form of a receipt and/or cash. I know most businesses use this system and it works very well.
I'd agree with the others that this is a legitimate expense and that it should be planned and a log submitted with the reimbursement request. However, I wouldn't necessarily feel we had to use the IRS rate. You don't want to be frivolous, but you do want to be fair. For instance, I work in government, which is never going to be overly generous in its employee reimbursements, yet ours is 35 cents a mile. Find a rate that's agreeable to everyone involved.
More importantly, do be careful it doesn't appear that you are singling one person out to be reimbursed but not everyone. Your approach might be that basically everyone who volunteers also volunteers SOME driving, but that these specific trips are reimbursable if requested.
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