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deductible miles

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gaboy

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Georgia

I own my own business and I have a full time job.... Here is the story...

I wake up each day at 6:00AM and work in my fully qualified home office (for my business) until 8:30AM. I then leave my home office and drive to my full time job where I put in my full day. I arrive home each day at around 5:30PM and work in my home office on my business until late. I also work on my own business on weekends. This is no ploy, it really is the way it is.


Is the mileage between my home and my job deductible?

Thanks in advance for the help

:)
 


Snipes5

Senior Member
No, the mileage between your home and your work is not deductible, regardless of whether or not you have your own business in your home.

Snipes
 

gaboy

Junior Member
I hate to beat a dead horse but I travel an awful lot of miles from one office to another per year and I am having a difficult time believing that none of it would be deductible. Allow me to expand on my original post above, as I figured that the following would not be deductible but what I originally posted would.

During my lunch period of my full time job, I often go to my home office to enter orders then travel back to work since it would not be appropriate to do so at work. Deductible miles?

During my commute to my full time job, I often go to my PO box on my way to work or on my way home to pick up the mail for my business. Is the portion of the trip from my PO box to my home office deductible if I stop off on the way home? Is the portion of the trip to my PO box from my home officeto deductible if I stop off on the way to my job?

Is it because I have such a mixture of things in my job and business that it would be impossible for me to seperate the two, therefore I will never get to deduct my business miles?

This entire situation is confusing and I do not want to deduct anything that is wrong.
 
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Snipes5

Senior Member
The thing is, you aren't traveling from one office to another, you're traveling from your home (which happens to have an office IN it), and your job.

I would have a hard time signing off on a tax return wherein the taxpayer claimed business mileage for checking a PO Box. It's shaky at best.

The way the IRS views long commutes is that they are a personal choice, and therefore constitute a personal, non-deductible, expense.

If you work in your home office, and then go to see clients, and then go to your other job, you can deduct the mileage from home to client, from client to client, and from client to job, but not the mileage from job to home.

If your self-employment doesn't include clients or going to special job sites, perhaps there is a way to add those things, which would allow you deduct mileage.

Another option is renting a space near your home and having your office there. You get up in the morning, drive to your rented office, do your work, drive from there to work (deductible), and then after work drive back there, do some work, (again, deductible) and then go home.

Snipes
 

nanomug

Member
Having had multiple jobs, home offices and various commutes over the years I have experienced this. My tax person says that I can deduct the mileage from the main job to the second job or from the main office to the second office. It does require record keeping. Mileage to check a business post office box would fall under business expenses on your taxes just like to the office supply store for paper and pens. I must be missing something about the reference to "not signing a tax return with mileage to the po".
 

gaboy

Junior Member
I'm having a hard time with the PO Box thing also, my PO box is strictly for business mail only and I receive no personal mail there. In fact, it is my business address to the public. It exists as a buffer to protect my personal address from the eyes of my customers. I receive business correspondence, product returns, ship packages to customers and use the services offered there many times a week. I really can't see how that is shaky, but I guess it is...
 

Snipes5

Senior Member
If you can honestly say that you make special trips from home to your PO Box and back, and don't check the mail in the ordinary course of your day, then fine, go ahead, but if you are out and about and happen to check your mail, I would not claim that mileage because you are doing other things during that trip also.

You should also have impeccable records in that case.

Snipes
 

gaboy

Junior Member
Often, a special trip is the case, particularly on saturdays... Sometimes though when I leave work (fulltime job) to come home I go by the PO Box... However once I have reached a certain point on the way home and turn towards the PO Box, it no longer is just out and about or commuting. I turn away from my normal route and specifically go to do business at the PO adding extra miles to the commute that normally would not be. When I do business, I'm not thinking of how to make the most out of mile deductions, and where I should legally start from or go to, but at some point one must account for the cost of doing business. Going to perform a business function in a vehicle without a doubt incurs cost regardless of what else one does while out. The only argument, in my mind is exactly when along the way the expense begins and ends.

Allow me to vent further...

Mr. Chiropractor has a home office that he uses to bill patients and make appointments. He also has an office that he sees patients in. His miles between home and office are business miles. This is why Mr. Chiropractor owns a Hummer H2 ( written off as a section 179 deduction ) with his magnetic signs firmly attached to the side.

However, I, because I work at "another" job, must figure out how I can account for an actual cost of doing business, by strategically planning my trips to the PO to include nothing else but the PO.

Something is definitely screwy about all of this, wouldn't you say?
 

Snipes5

Senior Member
Sure, and you can laugh yourself all the way to work and home again when your Chiro is finally audited.

Snipes
 

INShopper

Junior Member
Can I add a question re: deductible miles to this thread?

Indiana

I live in Indiana and work as a mystery shopper. I am asking this clarification question though on behalf of shoppers all over the country.

I shop part time and thus "work" out of my home (I use that term lightly in my situation because I do not claim a home office but I use my computer to search for assignments and input reports).

Thus, I travel from my home to the job site (retail site, restaurant, theme park, wherever I am assigned a shop) and then back home again.

Am I allowed to deduct the mileage between my home and the job? If I did have a qualified home office (such as many other shoppers do), is that a different situation?

I have heard different advice from no, it's not deductible because it is from your home to work, but have also heard that because it is not the typical job that the situation may be different.

Thank you for any advice I can get on this topic.

INShopper
 

Snipes5

Senior Member
Yes, it is deductible because you are not going to a specific job site each day, but to different places. Also, I am willing to bet that they pay you as an independent contractor, which makes you self-employed, and thereby makes any mileage in conjunction with your job completely deductible.

Every situation is different. Next time please start a separate thread, however.

Snipes
 

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