Quino Solutions develops automatic mileage loggers to lower the tax burden for people. For a one time investment and no monthly fees Quino’s customers are able to automatically record their mileage for reimbursement and tax deduction purposes. The device stores location data that can later be viewed and exported into google maps and/or Excel.

The claim: Log your business mileage and claim accurate mileage expenses without lifting a finger! The times when you had to use pen and paper to log your mileage are long gone.

 “Our research has shown that a lot of people leave money on the table because they do not want to go through the hassle of recording their mileage manually. Using our solution there are no more excuses not to record your mileage. Our device does the job for you.”  -Philipp Fuhrmann, Business Development Manager

Consider this: The average self-employed person in North America drives about 15,000 km/year for business related purposes leaving the average tax deduction at $7,800 (52cts/km in Canada).

With that in mind you should think twice whether or not to log your business mileage. 

Can you afford to not claim that kind of money?

-Ashton Byrne, Marketing Coordinator for Quino Solutions Inc.

> After working with Quino Solutions for the past two months I really admire the passion and intelligence used to develop the Quino MileTracer. The MileTracer is great product with a simple purpose. Claim your money. “Get down to business. Automate your mileage recording.”

Does anyone remember Chicken Little?   I think he was the chicken who felt the first Canadian snow fall of the season and mistaken it for the sky falling… After all what would you think.  The poor chick is born 2 or 3 months earlier in the middle of summer…along comes fall… The first change of weather in September and you get a big dump of snow… Process this with a bird size brain and there you go… The sky must be falling.

NO… The GPS satellites will stay in the sky! 

It has been reported that some of the GPS satellites in the sky are reaching their end of life.   However, reports from the US government have mentioned that there are more satellites in the sky than ever before.

 24 satellites are required in orbit in order to maintain accuracy acceptable to commercial and military needs.  There are currently 34 so although we may experience degradation over the short term the system will remain functional.

 Here is a link to an article on the subject which was posted May 21, when I first posted this blog.

 http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=650277B6-1A64-67EA-E43C4F57008DA7A1

 The need for GPS is paramount.  The people of the world need GPS technology including the US government, Airlines and other aircraft industries, ship navigation, oil and gas, mining, sporting industries.  The list goes on and on.   The really neat thing is that this system is so important that the European Union has developed a new system just to compete called the Galileo system.  So do not worry the sky will not fall…and yes you will find your way home, find that important fishing hole, and record that all important extra mile for your tax reimbursement. 

 -Chris Pinter, President of Quino Solutions Inc.

We, at Quino, have developed our software to accommodate to the government’s regulations according to vehicle use for business purposes. Therefore, because we serve to protect our clients from audits with either the IRS or CRA, we figured an update would be nice.

The Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty announced, late last year, some key points for automobile deduction limits and expense benefit rates for businesses:

Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) stays at $30000 for purchases after 2008

The limit of deductible leasing costs have remained at $800/month

Maximum allowable interest deduction for borrowed or purchased after 2009 remained at $300/month

The tax exempt, for employees using their personal car for work, remained at a 52 cents limit up to 5000km and 46 cents for any additional kilometres. If you live in the Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, or Nunavut that  tax exempt is 56 cents up to 5000km and 50 cents for any additional kilometres. The personal portion of automobile operating expense paid by employers remained at 24 cents per kilometre

We hope that you found this update helpful and beneficial. If you want to stay informed about “the need to know” for the government’s automobile limits and rates for businesses follow us at…

Follow us on twitter: @QuinoSolutions

Follow this blog. Updated weekly… at least

-Ashton Byrne, Marketing Coordinator

Note: The deduction limits and expense benefit rates above are taken directly from the Canadian Government’s website. If you need further clarification of any point above contact the government directly. http://www.fin.gc.ca/n08/08-114-eng.asp

A blog post from Quino Solutions’ old website… Worth reading

As a small business owner, reviewing costs and analyzing what is best for the company’s cash flow is at the forefront of my mind daily.

We recently hired a salesman for our company.  We had never had anyone dedicated to sales before so the expenses arising were new to me.

I contacted our outside accountant and viewed the Revenue Canada website.  I confirmed that the prescribed rate to reimburse an employee was 52 cents per km to cover gas, insurance and car payments etc.  So I notified our salesman to keep track of his business km driven for business purposes using our “MileTracer” product.  The system works beautifully.  He checks his mileage report from our “MileTracer” product and reports it to me at the end of each month.

The other owner of the business reviewed the expense report and said that looks a little high to me, wouldn’t it be cheaper just to pay for a company car and pay the gas and insurance costs? Well, I had been paying about $200 a month to cover the mileage km driven.  So I immediately began to create a cost benefit of the situation.

It would cost about $200 a month in car payments for a  compact car.  About $1,600 per year in insurance and on top of that about $100 a month is gas receipts.  There is no mention in this scenario yet of car repairs and maintenance.  It was clear that reimbursing by the km was a lot better for our small business as cash flow is king.

The only scenario is where a sales rep drives many km per week and is constantly on the road.  If a sales rep averaged 200 km per day in driving. I had met one once who worked for McCain’s and drove constantly from one supermarket to another.  They would average about 200 km (day) x .52 cents = $104 in mileage costs times around 22 days per month – this bill would be $2,288 monthly to the company.  In an instance such as this with a salesman constantly on the road it definitely makes sense to foot the bill for the car payment and the insurance etc.

So, the results are if you have a salesman who just visits a few customers around town then definitely go with the mileage reimbursement based on km driven.  If you do, however. have a salesman who is constantly on the road for days at a time it is definitely cheaper to go with paying for a company car.

- Natalie Pinter, VP Finance of Quino Solutions

The MileTracer hardware was designed to blend  into your vehicle’s interior. It features an internal magnet and can be mounted on any metallic surface.

The optional USB cigarette-lighter power adapter allows for worry-free mileage logging.

If you are still not keeping an accurate mileage log we urge you to start now. The IRS and Canada Revenue are increasing audits significantly.

Quino Solutions Inc. is a Vancouver, Canada based high-technology company.

We offer GPS  Tracking as well as Mileage Logging solutions.