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Is piano tuning temporary work? (job details included)

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Scallopking

New member
What is the name of your state?
Georgia

I am a piano tuner with hundreds of clients a year. I drive to their homes to work on their pianos.

I drive from my house to theirs only twice each year.
I spend no more than a few hours each time they have me tune and the jobs are very short, but I do visit them each year.

Is this a temporary location due to the jobs I get being short, or indefinite due to me revisiting them year after year?

I will probably spend no more than a few hours at their location over the course of my entire life.

How do people spending several months at a job site get called a temp location, while my jobs are hundreds of times shorter than that?

Can I claim this as a temporary work location on my standard mile deduction?
 


PayrollHRGuy

Senior Member
No that is not the proper use of that deduction.

But if you run a business your cost of travel for work is a business expense.
 

Scallopking

New member
I’m an independent contractor.
I’m looking in publication 17
Chapter 26 transportation expenses.
Let me know what I could deduct please.
 

adjusterjack

Senior Member
I used to drive for business. Here's how it works. If you make one call a day then both directions are commute. If you make more than one call a day then from home to your first call is commute and from your last call to home is commute.

There may be other rules for travelling out of town.

Publication 463 has more comprehensive information about how that works.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p463.pdf

Publication 535 addresses other business expenses.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p535.pdf

Study them carefully so you can get the most out of your legitimate business expenses.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
I’m an independent contractor.
I’m looking in publication 17
Chapter 26 transportation expenses.
Let me know what I could deduct please.
I agree with AJ's answer but I am going to rephrase for clarity.

You cannot deduct commuting miles. Your home to your first stop of the day is commuting miles, and your last stop of the day back to home is also commuting miles. Any stops in between are business miles. Any trips to buy materials are business miles.
 

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