Two questions on deductions

I have to do my own taxes this year, our usual tax preparer had a sudden family emergency. I have two questions, that somebody perhaps could help me with:

1) My company requires, that for every daily mileage expense submitted, I subtract the mileage from my house to the office. So, if it's 20 miles from home to the airport, and 25 miles to my office, I can't expense the trip from home to the airport. Does the same rule apply when claiming tax deduction for car expense ? I have made probably a few hundred trips to different sites and vendors from my home and couldn't expense them because the distance traveled was less than commute to office. 2) I didn't even request mileage expense reimbursement for most of the year - our management started to enforce the policy that mileage should be expensed within 3 months, or lost. In the past years, we could get away by submitting all prior mileage expenses around October, when things get a bit less crazy at work (usually I don't even go to lunch unless I need to meet with somebody). Can I still claim this unused reimbursement in my taxes ? Thanks !

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Reply to
Passerby
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I wonder if the intent of that rule is to avoid paying mileage on the commute from home to the office. However, travel from home to a temporary place of work generally is a deduction. If you did a lot of that and your employer didn't reimburse you, you can probably deduct it on your taxes. It's subject to the 2% floor so it's probably better for you if your employer reimburses you. Here's a fairly good page on travel deductions:

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I'm not sure what you mean by "unused reimbursement" in part 2 there. If you have legitimate business-related travel expenses that were not reimbursed by your employer, you can deduct them on your taxes.

Reply to
John D. Goulden

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I always assumed that the non-reimbursement has to be because the company refuses to reimburse employees for the expense, NOT because you never bothered to submit an expense report.

Reply to
Barry Margolin

The IRS used to say that you couldn't take a casualty loss if you had insurance but didn't file a claim. The courts disagreed. Seems like a pretty analogous situation to me. Stu

Reply to
Stuart A. Bronstein

Local job related travel between home and a temporary work location is deductible if you have a local permanent job location for the same job. Employers are NOT required to reimburse you for all your deductible expenses. As you describe it, you have a employee expense deductible on Schedule A as a miscellaneous deduction subject to a 2% of adjusted gross income reduction.

In my opinion, yes.

You start on Form 2106 and carry the total of unreimbursed expenses to Schedule A. Be aware, as noted above, your total miscellaneous itemized deductions have to exceed 2% of AGI before you get a tax benefit.

Reply to
Bill Brown

And then there is my old company who required the following to get reimbursed for car mileage: Fill out a company car request form several days in advance, get your boss to sign it, then get your department manager to sign it, then get your division manager to sign it, then take it to the motor pool at 7:00 a.m. on the required morning because all the purchasing personnel will get all the company cars if you don't get there early. If they did and there is no company car, you can then apply for mileage reimbursement. Needless to say, if the requirement to drive to another building, plant site or outside location came up on short notice or the departure time was not fixed well in advance, you took your own car and didn't bother with the paperwork. I wouldn't hesitate to deduct it.

Linda Dorfmont E.A., CFP, CSA And former aerospace engineer

Reply to
DORFMONT

If so, he can file now and the company will refuse because it's too late. Seth

Reply to
Seth

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