commuting mileage

So long as you have a home office as your principal place of business then yes, you can claim the mileage. That doesn't necessarily mean a home office that meets all requirements for deduction as such.

A home office is your principal place of business if it is where you earn most of your income or where you perform administrative or management tasks for your business. The statute provides that ". . . the term ?principal place of business? includes a place of business which is used by the taxpayer for the administrative or management activities of any trade or business of the taxpayer if there is no other fixed location of such trade or business where the taxpayer conducts substantial administrative or management activities of such trade or business."

Not on the facts as given.

"Between home and regular or main job, Never deductible."

If the packages were delivered to his house, so that the job started at his house, it might be a different story.

You'll find plenty more, both official IRS and various Web sites' interpretations, by doing this Google search:

self-employed commuting "internal revenue service"

Commuting (traveling from home to a work location) is never deductible.

The question is whether or not this must be characterized as commuting. If you have a qualified home office, then you are traveling from one work location to another work location, which is deductible.

Stu

So long as you have a home office as your principal place of business then yes, you can claim the mileage. That doesn't necessarily mean a home office that meets all requirements for deduction as such.

A home office is your principal place of business if it is where you earn most of your income or where you perform administrative or management tasks for your business. The statute provides that ". . . the term ?principal place of business? includes a place of business which is used by the taxpayer for the administrative or management activities of any trade or business of the taxpayer if there is no other fixed location of such trade or business where the taxpayer conducts substantial administrative or management activities of such trade or business." ========== I disagree. He sounds like an employee to me, NOT self-employed. No deduction. Commuting is not allowed.

I'm not sure to whom I should be replying, but:

If he has a qualified home office, even if he doesn't visit the office before and/or after going to job sites, the mileage is deductible business mileage.

If he has an unqualified home office (principle place of business, but not exclusive use), some courts have ruled he would still have deductible business mileage, but the IRS has not acquiesced. I'd have to research further to determine _which_ courts have so ruled

If he does not have a home office, it's commuting mileage, and not deductible.

-- Arthur L. Rubin, AFSP, CRTP, Brea, CA

Tks all, ans. question well.

I agree with Arthur. TRA 1997 restored the ability to treat your home as your principal place of business if that is where you perform the admin. and/or mgt activities and you have no other place to do that.

The IRS issued a revenue ruling in 1999 (99-7) that explained when daily transportation expenses were deductible. This ruling replaced all prior rulings and conformed with TRA 1997. In identifying 3 exceptions to the denial of deducting commuting miles, it is the third one that deals with your home as your principal place of business. It said that if you met the definition in Section 280A of your home being your principal place of business, then you could deduct the miles from your residence to the other work location (same trade/business) regardless of whether it was a regular place of work or a temporary place of work.

What it means is that if your home qualifies as your principal place of business for purposes of the home office deduction (regular and exclusive test) then you are not commuting when you drive from your home to a place of work in the same trade or business. Performing administrative and management activities for your business in your home when you have no other fixed location to perform those activities meets the test.

Looking at it another way, if you can't meet the regular and exclusive tests as defined in Sec. 280A, then your home would not be your principal place of business and you would be commuting.

Arthur stated he believed that there was a court case that allowed the deduction even though the regular and exclusive test was not passed and the IRS nonacquiesced. I can't recall one. I have in my files, Bogue vs Comm'r T.C. Memo. 2011-164. I kept that one because the court made it clear that you had to pass both the regular and exclusive test in order to treat your home as your principal place of business and if you failed that test, you were commuting. The other reason I kept it, was that the court said it didn't matter if the taxpayer took the business use of home deduction if the home was the principal place of business.

Here's a quote from that case:

.. and we have consistently equated the ?principal place of business? requirement for the home office exception with the ?principal place of business? requirement under section 280A. See Walker v. Commissioner, 101 T.C. 537, 546 (1993); Curphey v. Commissioner, supra at 777. Consequently, although petitioner did not claim a deduction for the business use of his residence pursuant to section 280A(c)(1), we nonetheless must consider whether petitioner?s office in his residence qualifies as his principal place of business under that statute.

Here are relevant parts of RR 99-7 and Sec. 280A

Rev. Rul. 99-7 ?If a taxpayer?s residence is the taxpayer?s principal place of business within the meaning of section 280A(c)(1)(A), the taxpayer may deduct daily transportation expenses incurred in going between the residence and another work location in the same trade or business, regardless of whether the other work location is regular or temporary and regardless of the distance.?

280A(C)(1)(A) (1) Certain business use: Subsection (a) shall not apply to any item to the extent such item is allocable to a portion of the dwelling unit which is exclusively used on a regular basis? (A) as the principal place of business for any trade or business of the taxpayer,

Here is the part added by the TRA of 1997 that adds the administrative or management activities to the definition of a principal place of business.

For purposes of subparagraph (A), the term ?principal place of business? includes a place of business which is used by the taxpayer for the administrative or management activities of any trade or business of the taxpayer if there is no other fixed location of such trade or business where the taxpayer conducts substantial administrative or management activities of such trade or business.

I am just curious...., you wrote: "TXPYR is self employed and will receive his pay by the hour from WHSE owner."

1) Do you mean that TXPYR receives an hourly wage and receives a W-2? 2) Or, do you mean that TXPYR receives his "pay" by the hour, based on number of hours worked, but receives a 1099 for those hours (not a W-2)?

And, for others here, would whether the answer is "1" or "2" make a difference in terms of the replies?

Unless he meets patients, clients, or customers or customers there. If so, then apparently the exclusive use test does not apply.

Years ago, a salesman, from whom our company regularly bought things, lived about a mile away from our company. His home office was about ten miles away. For some strange reason, he almost always dropped in on us before going to his home office. He couldn't have been doing this to make most of his commute tax-deductible, could he? :-)

He will receive his pay on a 1099. Does no work at his home

Whether or not he receives a 1099 is not the major test. But not working at home is definitive: no deduction for travel from home.