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Mileage Deductions from the IRS: Commuting to-from work miles if you work from home?
My boss is having a problem with my mileage, and wants me to deduct “personal miles” I use from my mileage reimbursement on my expense reports.
The problem is, he’s referring to my to-from work miles, that the IRS does not allow you to claim as deductible work related mileage, but I work out of my home, and do not travel to an office or any specific place each day.
I take calls and work from my home, and travel to customer sites for tech support, but this can be anywhere in the states of Georgia or Tennessee, and is just on an as-needed basis.
If I have no office to commute to, what does the IRS say would be my to-from commuting mileage, if any?
Are you a w2, or a 1099? Travel between a temporary location and your home is one of the most difficult areas in terms of figuring out whether or not to deduct mileage.
If you have no “permanent place of work” outside of your home, then traveling from home to a temporary locations becomes more difficult to deduct. In order to deduct mileage between home and a temporary location, you need a home office, aka a place that is exclusively dedicated to your work. Otherwise the mileage between your home and your first temporary work location is NOT deductible. See IRS publication 463, pages 14 and 15 for details.
If you are a field tech and regularly pick up parts at a certain parts depot or package hub (FedEx, UPS, etc.) then the depot will be considered your “office”, and the mileage between your home and the parts depot will NOT be deductible. The mileage from the depot to your calls WILL be deductible, and so will the mileage back home from the temporary location (unless you go to the depot and drop off parts, THEN go home…that will NOT be deductible).
Your wording of “deduct” is a bit confusing…it sounds like your boss wants you to “remove” (not deduct) personal miles from your expense reports. He has the right to do so.
It sounds to me like you have a really nasty boss, you wouldn’t happen to work as a field tech for BancTec, NCR or Qualxserv? They can be really cheap support companies. Most techs stay there a few months build a client base, then leave. I would recommend leaving after memorial day weekend, when volume starts skyrocketing. Good luck.
