With gas prices climbing to record amounts this year, the IRS has decided to raise the reimbursement standard by 8 cents to 58.5 cents a mile. According to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, “Rising gas prices are having a major impact on individual Americans. Given the increase in prices, the IRS is adjusting the standard mileage rates to better reflect the real cost of operating an automobile, we want the reimbursement rate to be fair to taxpayers”. This adjustment will come into effect on July 1st of this year and is scheduled to run until December when the situation will be reevaluated.

Workers who use their vehicles for business are able to use either the standard mileage rate, or deduct the actual expense on their tax returns. Many private employers, and the federal government, use the IRS rate to reimburse workers. The IRS includes additional factors such as depreciation and cost of insurance when determining the rate. While the IRS typically adjusts the rate in the fall of each year for the following year, the dramatic increase in prices over the past few months prompted a special adjustment to be made. According to the AAA, nationwide average for a gallon of regular gas is at $4.07, up more than a dollar from $2.98 a year ago. In addition to raising the standard business mileage rate, the IRS also announced they would be making a similar 8 cent adjustment to the mileage rate or deductible medical or moving expenses making the new rate 27 cent per mile.

Tips for better gas mileage:

-Check tire pressure monthly
-Keep your car well serviced and check the oil level regularly
-Avoid hard braking or accelerating
-Use air conditioning only when necessary
-Remove extra unnecessary weight from your trunk or backseats
-Drive with the windows up when at high speeds and remove roof racks when not in use
-Use mass transit when possible, and consider looking into a ride-share or carpool service

Visit Savemorethanfuel to learn more about these and other initiatives.

In a new effort to lower gas emissions and save money for motorists at the pump, members of the European Union Energy commission have begun a public service campaign discussing such techniques. Over the next few months over 30 million pamphlets will be handed out in an effort to educate drivers on eco-friendly driving. In trials at the eco driving school, drivers cut their fuel consumption from 7.3 liters per 100 kilometers to 5 liters. This would save drivers about $800 per 15,000 km driven.

With budgets and resources across a majority of industries becoming increasingly stretched, organizations are looking more and more into alternative ways of lowering costs. As a result organizations are looking at incorporating technology to increase productivity. A recent article on Mid-Market discusses how organizations can save money by using a variety of on-demand services to streamline HR functions. This article focused on the company LifeLock, who was able to use on-demand services to manage a work force of 350 employees with only two full-time HR staff.

Services such as the HRSentry and the HR Made Simple Kit provide a cost effective way to move the focus of you HR functions from basic tasks to more hot button issues such as conflict resolution and employee training. The idea behind these programs is to create a user controlled environment, which keeps the costs down, and allows people with little or no HR training to develop an effective HR compliance program. It also gives experienced HR professionals the ability to take their focus off of time consuming tasks such as keeping track of constantly changing laws, creating employee handbooks and policies, putting their focus on the higher level staff issues.

In addition to the services provided by HRSentry, there are a number of other online resources that can be a valuable asset to any organization including Preventive HR (including a fantastic online job description and evaluation program), AGOS (focusing on claims and incident prevention they provide excellent desktop training modules for a variety of issues), and CompEraser (a top-notch claims management program that can significantly increase profits by staying on top of existing claims and quantifying the impact). As industries become more and more technology driven, online tools such as the ones discussed above are being relied on to take over duties that previously would have required an additional staff member.