It’s sometime in February and you realize the Form 1099 you received is in error. In fact, it overstates your income by several thousand dollars. What should you do?

• Gather your facts. Put yourself in the shoes of the vendor, bank or investment company representative. Gather evidence they will need to support your claim to correct the tax form. This includes receipts, e-mails, and statements. Have your account number handy as well.
• Contact the vendor. Contact the vendor as soon as you discover the error and ask them to re-issue the statement or provide you with a corrected form. Start with a phone call, then put your evidence in writing and send it to them via certified mail. Give the vendor a reasonable, yet concrete, time frame to correct the error. You do not want to wonder when a correction is coming, so keep control of the timing for a correction if at all possible.
• Written confirmation. If the vendor agrees with your change, ask for a letter from them that outlines the correction. File this letter with your tax return to help you defend against a potential audit.
• Tell the IRS. After a reasonable attempt to correct the error with no progress, contact the IRS to inform them of the failure to correct your information.
• File an extension? If you believe a correction is on the way, you may wish to file a tax extension. Remember, you will still need to pay any tax owed by the original due date. If you do not have assurance of a correction, file your tax return with correct information and provide documentation that outlines the reporting error.

1. Keep a log. The tax code is clear on this point. You may not estimate your miles driven. You must support your claimed deduction, ideally with a detailed mileage log.

2. Create good habits. Your odometer reading and miles driven should be noted as soon as possible after the event. Keep a log book in your car and note the miles driven each day. Logs created after-the-fact with estimated miles driven could be disallowed during an audit.

3. Make thorough entries. Note the odometer readings, date, miles driven, the to/from locations, and the qualified purpose for the trip.

4. Don’t lose out on the extras. The deduction for miles driven is meant to provide a deduction for fuel, depreciation, and repairs. You can also deduct out-of-pocket expenses for tolls, parking and other transportation fees. Keep a running total of these fees in the back of your mileage log.

5. Keep separate logs for each deduction. Remember you may deduct mileage for business, charitable purposes, qualified moving and medical miles. It is best to keep track of each in a separate mileage log.

6. Alternative business transportation deduction. When it comes to deducting business transportation expenses, remember the miles driven method is not the only one available to you. You may also deduct your actual expenses, but how and when you make this determination is important. In the initial year of placing your vehicle into service for your business, it is best to keep track and record all your actual auto expenses. An analysis can then be conducted to see which method is best for you to maximize your deduction.