IRS Mileage Rate Increases For 2008 Reimbursement
Fuel surcharges, explicit and hidden, continue impacting consumer prices. Virtually every travel method from taxis to airplanes to trucking has included hefty fuel surcharges. Even local merchants who deliver are doing the same.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is generally good about increasing the reimbursement rate for mileage used while using your car for business or as a personal tax deduction (perhaps if you itemize and your out of pocket medical qualifies). What the IRS has traditionally not been good at is changing the rate in response to a market condition in the middle of a tax year.
Not anymore.
The agency everyone loves to pound on is cranking the mileage deductible rate to 58.5 cents next week on July 1. The increase is more than 15%, and if your vehicle is averaging 20 miles per gallon, the 8 cent increase in the mileage deduction rate effectively decreases your cost per gallon by $1.60.
The deductible rate for medical purposes will rise to 27 cents.
Labels: energy, IRS, mileage deduction, mileage rate
Here Come Hydrogen Cars As Oil Rebounds and Americans Hypermile
If you haven't been watching the news much lately, they're Honda's marketing coup. A mix of science fiction and global environmentalism, fuel cell cars are real and here to stay.
Saudi Arabia announced this weekend that they they would boost oil output to its highest level in 27 years. Asian and European exchanges had initially reacted favorably to the news, but now are seeing prices bounce back over $135.
Meanwhile, neither you nor your friends will be getting a Honda Clarity any time soon unless you're a Hollywood star or finance mogul, but the zero emissions vehicle's debut may be a landmark moment like the launch of Sputnik. While doing little by itself in terms of space exploration, Sputnik ushered in a generation of possibilities. The launch of the tiny Soviet spacecraft enabled John F. Kennedy several short years later to declare that the United States would put a man on the moon. What a pity none have returned.
Meanwhile, Honda announced today that three Southern California dealerships would form the first distribution network for fuel -- long seen by economists as one of the vehicle's major impediments. The world's industry still remains oil-dependent, but you will be able to tell your descendants that one day, long ago, you remember when the first zero emissions vehicles rolled off the assembly line.
Labels: auto, energy, Honda
