Set up the vehicle, elect a valuation method for the tax year, close and settle personal-use periods, and keep the service and fuel record. Drivers log trips at /vehicle-log.
These three can differ. The titleholder owns the vehicle, the book entity carries the asset, and the W-2 entity is whoever would issue the wage if personal use ever has to be imputed instead of reimbursed.
Purchase price plus tax, title and license is the fair market value that picks the Annual Lease Value bracket — tax and title are part of it, not incidental.
Recording an election never overwrites a prior one — it supersedes it. What was filed for a past tax year stays exactly as it was filed.
| Year | Ver | Method | Settlement | FMV | ALV | FMV locked through | Elected | Change reason |
|---|
An approved or settled period can be reopened to fix a mistake. That returns it to draft, unlocks its trips, and keeps every payment already recorded — you must give a reason, which is stored permanently. Recompute the span and approve again afterwards; if the payments still cover the corrected gross it settles by itself, and if the corrected gross comes out lower the difference shows in Over-paid. An imputed period cannot be reopened: its value was already reported as W‑2 compensation, so correcting it needs a payroll amendment first.
| Period | Days | Business | Personal | Personal % | Gross | Paid | Outstanding | Over-paid | Due | Status |
|---|
| Date | Odometer | Category | Vendor | Description | Cost | Next due |
|---|
Gallons plus odometer on every fill is what makes tank-to-tank MPG possible. On a 9–12 MPG truck a sustained drop is an early mechanical warning, so mark a fill that did not top the tank off as partial rather than letting it corrupt the series.
| Date | Odometer | Gallons | Total | $/gal | MPG | Station | Paid by |
|---|
Driven by the recurring schedules and the odometer series — overdue first.
| Service | Due at odometer | Due by | Miles left | Days left | Status |
|---|
Tank-to-tank, computed from gallons and odometer on each full fill. On a 9–12 MPG truck a sustained drop is an early mechanical warning, not just a cost line — partial fills are excluded rather than allowed to corrupt it.
| Filled on | Odometer | MPG |
|---|
Receipts, invoices, registration, insurance, title. These carry the VIN, plate and owner address, so they are served only to a signed-in session — the link below will not work for anyone who is not.
| Kind | File | Type | Size | Attached to |
|---|
For trips written down at the time and typed up later. These are recorded as retroactive, which is exactly how the substantiation report will report them — a desk entry cannot make a reconstructed log look contemporaneous, because that is the thing Pub 463 asks about. Pick the driver who actually drove: the miles land in their personal-use period, not the person typing.
A personal or commute trip stores miles only — any destination typed above is dropped on purpose (the IRS needs total personal miles, not where someone went on a Saturday).
| Before | After | Expected | Actual | Miles |
|---|
| Period | Personal mi | ALV | Cents/mile | Cheaper | Difference |
|---|