Can fuel expenses also be deducted from the IRS? – HR

It's one of the most frequently asked questions: Is fuel also included as a deductible expense on the e-bill? “The Economist” explains.

As long as they have your taxpayer number, gas station bills are also included in the electronic bill and can be deducted by the IRS. However, there are different rules for the type of fuel and it can be declared differently, depending on the purposes for which it is used (personal or when carrying out activities as a self-employed worker).

Is fuel considered an expense?

As with any other expense, invoices related to the purchase of fuel that carry your taxpayer number go into the electronic invoice and are taken into account by the IRS when calculating the taxpayer's deductions.

What category do fuel bills fall into?

Not belonging to any other category of deductible expenses under the IRS, fuel expenses are included in the taxpayer's general family expenses. This category allows deduction of 35% of expenses incurred by any family member, up to a maximum of €250 (€500 per couple).

So, regardless of whether you fill up your car to commute or work on your own, you can always declare these expenses.

However, please note that, taking into account that you can only benefit from a 35% discount on everyday expenses, such as supermarket, clothing, gas, electricity or electricity, up to a maximum of €250 per family member (€500 per couple) ), if you already have a lot of bills in the overhead category, fuel bills won't make much of a difference.

When there are few expenses to declare in this category, the situation changes. In this case, fuel bills can be a big help in arriving at the amount of expenses that qualifies you for the most benefit from the IRS.

What about independent workers?

If you have a freelance business, when you validate your invoices, the system will ask you whether all fuel expenses were incurred personally or as part of a freelance business.

In other words, in the bill it is always general family expenses, but there may be differences in the type of benefit.

This is because invoices related to expenses related to professional activity can be considered for the purposes of deducting VAT, when the taxpayers are covered by the regulated accounting system or the simplified system and exceed the limits that allow exemption from VAT, as they are obligated to deduct and settle the VAT and submit VAT returns.

In this case, for the purposes of deducting activity-related fuel expenses, Finance distinguishes between fuel types.

In the case of gasoline, it is not entitled to deduct VAT. In the case of diesel, LPG or natural gas, it is possible to deduct 50% of the VAT incurred, as specified in paragraph (b) of paragraph 1 of Article 21 of the Value Added Tax Law.

This advantage is even greater when the expenses for this fuel are related to the following vehicles (in these cases, the VAT is fully deductible and not just 50%):

• Heavy passenger vehicles.
• Vehicles licensed for public transport, excluding car rental vehicles.
• Machines that consume diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, natural gas or biofuels, as well as machines that have been registered by the competent authorities, provided that in all cases they are not registered vehicles;
• Tractors used exclusively or primarily to carry out the cultural operations inherent in agricultural activity;
• Cars transporting goods weighing more than 3,500 kg.