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My neighbor is a drug rep. and he wrestles with this. He seems to go for the car allowance, which is what the forum leans here and I am sure it's not even $1000/month he gets.

He does tell me the drug co.'s have strict guidelines on keeping it clean and garaged though. I guess they don't want them walking up to DisneySteve's practice in an old beat-up Buick covered in mud.

So. . .he probably goes to the car wash every 2 weeks to keep it spiffy and washes it himself when he has the time. So, there's that added expense where I probably wash my cars 1x/quarter and wax with Nu-Finish 2x/year.

And yes, mileage/gas is an issue. . .he logs in some mileage per year.

SOmething tells me his car allowance was $600/month but I could be wrong.

Another issue may be your taxes:

Do you file a Schedule C? I wonder how it would work - if you are getting 12K/year, of course that's income, but maybe that's given to you on a 1099 w/out taxes taken out. Now. . .if you file a Schedule C (Sole Proprietor business return), you may get to deduct 80-100% if you lease the car. I am not a fan of leasing at all but in this case, it may actually make sense if you are getting an allowance.

The repairs would be under factory warranty - you lease a car for $0.00 down and $400/month. . .you have $600/month for gas and insurance.

Plus you now have some writeoffs. . .lease payments and car insurance.

I would ask your accountant for his/her perspective.