question about mileage deduction - special circumstances

WE need to make a distinction between an office in home and a home which is the principal place of business also. One might not have or even need an office in home, yet the home is the principal place of business. Example; a painter whose tools are stored in his truck. Home is principal place of business, so his miles are tax deductible.

As for me, if I leave home and instead of going to the office, head straight out of town say to Auburn University (30 miles) for an all day tax seminar, then I have 60 miles, cause that is outside my area. This of course has nothing to do with home office, lack of it, or principal place of business.

ChEAr$, Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

Thanks for the cite. In Soliman the Supreme Court disallowed the deduction, overruling both the tax court and the 4th Circuit. They said,

"Under the Court of Appeals' test, a home office may qualify as the principal place of business whenever the office is essential to the taxpayer's business, no alternative office space is available, and the taxpayer spends a substantial amount of time there. See id., at 54. This approach ignores the question whether the home office is more significant in the taxpayer's business than every other place of business. The statute does not refer to the "principal office" of the business. If it had used that phrase, the taxpayer's deduction claim would turn on other considerations. The statute refers instead to the "principal place" of business. It follows that the most important or significant place for the business must be determined."

Stu

What is most significant of Soliman v. Commissioner is that the IRS chose go after Dr. Soliman because he was the picture perfect example of a home office deduction by someone who did not generate revenue from his home office. This was in spite of the fact that all of his scheduling and recording keeping was done from his home office.

Dr. Soliman prevailed in the lower courts. But the IRS took it to Willie & The Supremes because if there was no home office deduction for Dr. Soliman, there was no home office deduction for anyone who looked like him and certainly not for anyone who didn't look as good as he did.

This ended depreciation, apportionment of rent, travel, etc. But you could still 1099 furniture and fixtures.

Dick

Dick I am truly sorry to hear of your unfortunate educational environment:-) Harlan, I assume you travel Hwy 280 or I-85, in which case we regularly cross paths at 65+ MPH.

War Eagle!

Gasoline is 3.87 per gallon here in Phenix City, so the slower you go, the more gas (includes taxes!) you save. YOU may at 65+ cross me going about 55 or so.

Neither War Eagle nor Tide, btw.

ChEAr$, Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

In August I wrote about the tradeoff between speed, increasing your MPG, and the time you lose. The bottom line was that slowing down from 65 to

55 takes average MPG from 27 up to 32, and to go 55 miles, you trade 9 minutes for .47 gal of gas. Now, that's $1.82 or $12/hr. It really depends how you value your time.

But that's a nontaxable $12/hour :^)

Excellent analysis, joe. It would depend on whether or not I had client work to do for which I could bill at my usual hourly rate. Otherwise, I have all the time in the world, enough to last me the rest of my life.

ChEAr$, Harlan

Unless the travel is deductible and you use actual cost.

Seth