My wife uses a vehicle extensively for work (Field Sales Rep). She used to drive a company car, but in late 2008, that changed. The company now requires the employees to purchase a vehicle, and they reimburse a fraction of the cost.

Thinking that the amount that was NOT reimbursed was too low to claim, I did not claim this deduction in our Itemized Deductions for 2008 or 2009 tax returns. Taking a closer look, it seems that we may be able to get a decent deduction by claiming these for 2010. However, Form 2106 states that we can only claim these deductions if "You owned the vehicle and used the standard mileage rate for the first year you placed the vehicle in service".

Considering that the vehicle was purchased (and technically, placed into service) in late 2008, how would I go about claiming these deductions? Do I need to rework my taxes from 2008 and 2009, even if they do very little to the bottom line for those years? Could it be argued that the "placed in service date" was not in 2008, but on Jan 1, 2010 since we never claimed any deductions on the vehicle before 2010?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Turk