Employer provided Vehicle

published June, 2008

If your corporation provides a vehicle for it’s employees who drive at least a bit personally, this is income to the employee.

The question for the employer has been how to value the personal use portion. The IRS says that for 2008, you can use the cents per mile method ($0.505/mile for Jan-June, $0.585 July-Dec for ’08) IF the vehicle value does not exceed $15,000 when the employee starts using it. ($15,900 for the ‘step up’ sized vehicle, like a Chevy Suburban). You can read more about this in Publication 15-B, Employers Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits (page 20) http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15b.pdf. Otherwise, you may need to determine actual expense.