Your situation as a paid caregiver is different from that of someone providing care for a family member. If you're paid as an employee (W2), and your employer does not pay you mileage, you have "unreimbursed employee expenses" that you can put on Schedule A. If you're paid as an independent contractor (1099), you have "business use of automobile" to include on Schedule C. Either way, you can only take a deduction for miles driven as part of your job, not for the driving you do to get to and from work (commuting).
You can deduct either the business-use percentage of the total actual costs of running the car for the year (gas, repairs, etc) or the IRS-specified rate per business mile driven, which for 2015 is 57.5 cents. (Maggie, because this is her job, they aren't medical miles they're business miles.)
Now for the biggie--to claim any deduction for business/job use of a vehicle, you MUST keep a log of miles driven (beginning and ending odometer), date, where you were going/business reason for the travel. Your log can be anything you want--a little notebook that sits on the dashboard, an app on your phone, or a GPS-enabled automated unit that plugs into the car. But it must be filled out in "real time".
This is a slow time of year for most tax pros, which makes it a great time to call yours (or find one) and get advice tailored to your situation. Depending on your situation, this could potentially save you a lot on taxes (or nothing, just so you don't get your hopes up too much).
You can deduct either the business-use percentage of the total actual costs of running the car for the year (gas, repairs, etc) or the IRS-specified rate per business mile driven, which for 2015 is 57.5 cents. (Maggie, because this is her job, they aren't medical miles they're business miles.)
Now for the biggie--to claim any deduction for business/job use of a vehicle, you MUST keep a log of miles driven (beginning and ending odometer), date, where you were going/business reason for the travel. Your log can be anything you want--a little notebook that sits on the dashboard, an app on your phone, or a GPS-enabled automated unit that plugs into the car. But it must be filled out in "real time".
This is a slow time of year for most tax pros, which makes it a great time to call yours (or find one) and get advice tailored to your situation. Depending on your situation, this could potentially save you a lot on taxes (or nothing, just so you don't get your hopes up too much).