Employees at the Schuylkill County courthouse who use county vehicles will be subject to a new policy being placed in effect September 1 by Controller Melinda Kantner.

Effective that day all county vehicles, owned or leased, will be required to maintain a vehicle mileage log to track both business and personal use of the vehicle. Kantner said she is instituting this policy because the Internal Revenue Service has determined that records must be maintained to substantiate business use of a vehicle. The regulations state separate records, or logs, for business and personal mileage are required.Kantner stated, "If records are not provided by the employee, the value of all use of the automobile is wages to the employee and the employee can then take itemized deductions for any substantiated business use on Form 1040, Schedule A. If records are provided by the employee, only the personal use of the automobile is wages to the employee."Kantner listed examples of personal use:Communiting between residence and work station, vacation, weekend use and use by spouse or dependents. "For example," Kantner said, "An employee goes into the officed on the weekend. This is personal commuting, regardless of whether it is required by the employee. DeMinimis personal use is not considered taxable. Examples of de minimis use would be a small, personal detour while on business, such as driving to lunch while out of the office on business or infrequent/rare commuting in employer vehicle or emergency situation."Kantner concluded, "All relevant departments listing a county vehicle on the fixed asset records, will be receiving vehicle mileage logs specific to each automobile. Department heads and respective elected officials are responsibile for the supervision of the mileage logs and ensuring compliance by their employees. When completing the semi-annual fixed asset reports for the controller's office, a copy must be submitted for the most recent mileage log for each vehicle."The county owns or leases 72 vehicles with juvenile probation department having the largest number, 16; adult probation, 12; district attorney's office 10, sheriff's office, eight; Solid Waste Department, seven; Emergency Management, four; Rest Haven Home, four; county prison, three; Domestic Relation, two; and Coal Lands, Real Estate Department, Public Works, parks and recreation, 9-1-1 and commissioners, one each.