Contractor (with home office) and Employee Mileage questions

[Peregrinator]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NM

Hi, I've read a lot of posts about deducting mileage as a contractor and W2 employee, but I haven't found one that quite answers my question. I'm a contractor for around 20 hours per week, part of my work is done in my home office and the other part is done at a clinic site. I am also an employee of a contracting agency that does the same type of work as my contracting job for 35 hours per week. The actual company location is 60 miles from where I live, but the job site(s) is closer to my house. The contracts last for 9 month periods with 3 months off, and then I may or may not be assigned to the same site again in the next 9 month period. It's possible that if there is no work near me, I will have to drive the 60 miles more or less to a site closer to the company's office or another city. So far I am not being reimbursed for any of my mileage by W2 employer.

A typical day goes like this:
1. I "commute" and spent time in home office prepping for afternoon clients and doing billing and service notes
2. I then drive from home office to the W2 job site and work there for 7 hours
3. Sometimes I will drive to 2-3 sites for W2 job within one day
4. I drive to 1099 clinic site from W2 job site
5. I drive from 1099 clinic site to home office and do more paperwork

I know I can deduct the miles for Trip 4 on Schedule C.
I'm pretty sure I can deduct the miles from Trip 5 on Schedule C also.
Can I deduct mileage for Trip 2 using the "temporary work site" clause? Or since I'm going from one place of employment (my home office) to another (W2 work site) can I deduct that from Schedule A or C???
I know I can deduct the miles for Trip 3, but do I deduct it separately from my 1099 mileage, i.e., is it a Schedule A deduction?

Thanks a million!

 

[FlyingRon]

Whether the jobs are as a W-2 employee or independent contractor is largely immaterial as to whether you CAN deduct it, only where you do the deduction.
On costs attributable to your IC income, you can take that off the top on the schedule C, otherwise it's part of your itemized deductions on ached A.

All of the transportation between work sites is clearly deductible.

The home office does qualify as a work sites if you can claim that it is your principal place of business (which would mean you use your home office regularly and exclusively for your business and that you have no other regular fixed location that you conduct your business).

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p463/index.html

 

[Peregrinator]

So what I gather is I can deduct all my miles since it is from work site to work site (given that my home office is firmly established as my principal place of business). And I do have to tease the miles out between Schedule C and A.

Thanks for the reply FlyingRon!