How to account for travel mileage!!

Right.

That's like going directly to work - no deduction.

Doesn't matter. It's your personal choice to take that route, so it's your personal mileage and not deductible. Now, if your employer requires you to bring your car to work for some reason but doesn't pay your mileage, you might have somewhat of an argument. But others here will know about that better than I do.

Yeah, the rule of thumb is that whenever you drive directly from home to wherever you are working at the moment, it's personal, non- deductible mileage. Stu

Eric, I am sure someone is going to give you answers for each specific question, but your final query set me to laughing. So in a humorous spirit, let me share an anecdote: "Back in the day" (over 30 years ago), my large firm assigned me to serve a client in Baltimore. (Our office was in downtown DC.) And the company reimbursed me for travel expense -- which was in cents per mile for the round trip. Therefore, this wasn't an IRS issue for me -- but a far more fastidious gatekeeper ruled at our home office. His name was Hal Whittaker, and he checked all expense account statements. Well, over time, I found my relationship with the client had improved to the point where meetings could be scheduled at _my_ convenience, and since I lived north of DC, it was just great if we met either first thing in the morning or in mid-afternoon ... because either way, I was avoiding the DC rush hour. But I hadn't reckoned with _Hal_. Since the total miles were lower when I traveled from my home to Baltimore (even though I returned to my office in DC), I would claim a lower amount of mileage on those days when I had one leg of the trip shortened by either leaving from or returning to my home.

But Hal noticed the discrepancy, and rejected the expense account. "Since the round trip to Baltimore had always been

50 miles, why did it suddenly become _40_ on this particular day?" he asked. My office manager quickly resolved the issue for me: He dictated that all trips to Baltimore should always be reimbursed for the "office-to-office" distance, regardless of other facts. Of course, in those days, we were talking about maybe 8 cents per mile reimbursement, so this wasn't in the grand theft class, but it made life simple for Hal -- and therefore, for me. Now, the IRS is kind of like Hal in some ways, but they have specific rules to cover all of those situations you've outlined -- and more -- and there's a pretty good discussion of them in Chapter 26 of Pub 17. The "Transportation Expenses" section has a nice chart (Figure 26-B) on page 173 of the 2005 tax year edition. I recommend you read that entire chapter. Oh, and thanks for bearing with me, on my trip down memory lane. Bill

Correct.

No deduction, travel that starts or ends at your home is considered commuting. Therefore, if you travel directly between your home and a work site, it's commuting.

No deductible mileage. See above

Assuming you're going back to work to do meaningful work (i.e., not just driving through the parking lot to say you went there) then the mileage from the work-related location to work is deductible. The mileage to/from home is not.

You stated the rules in your first paragraph.

You should check out the rules for accountable plans, if you are an employee. There is also an IRS publication that deals with your issues

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