The new rate will help her 11 employees, who have been shying away from visiting clients because of increasing travel costs, she said.
At the same time, the mileage rate increase adds to her ever-growing costs of running a business.
"I can't nickel-and-dime my employees," Levitt said.
Some workers like Dean Morekas are deducting their actual driving expenses, such as gas and insurance, instead of taking a per-mile write-off.
Morekas, a home inspector for Land America Property Inspection Services who works mostly in the Baltimore area, said he switched from the per-mile rate because he drives about 20,000 miles a year for business.
"I'm not paying much attention to that," Morekas said of yesterday's announcement. "Obviously, gas is always part of the expense of business, but you can't be raising prices [for clients] to keep up. We're trying to still be competitive in the industry and keep rates as low as possible, but you can't make up the difference easily."
Since the IRS mileage rate is optional for employers, workers can deduct the difference on their tax returns as a miscellaneous itemized deduction, said Mark Luscombe, a principal analyst for the tax and accountant group at CCH Inc., an Illinois-based tax information provider.
But there's a catch, he said.
The total of such deductible expenses has to exceed 2 percent of adjusted gross income.
hanah.cho@baltsun.com lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com
