Can I write off mileage when earning W-2 income?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
May 31, 2019
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I also earned a very little amount of 1099 but the majority of the mileage was driven during the time I earned W-2 income.

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Best answer by Analuisa

Regular commuting miles to and from work are not deductible, however commuting miles may count as business use and deductible as employee business expenses on form 2106 if your home is your office, if you are working out of a temporary location, or if you work in two or more different places during the day.

Here are some examples:

You have 2 jobs and you travel to both places in one day. The commuting miles to the 1st job are not deductible but the commuting miles from the 1st job to the 2nd job are. The commuting miles from the 2nd job to your home are not deductible. Whether or not you work for the same employer, you can deduct your expense of getting from one workplace to the other. However, if for some personal reason you do not go directly from one location to the other, you cannot deduct more than the amount it would have cost to go directly from the first location to the second.
If you have a qualifying home office for your business, the round-trips between your office and your client's place of business.
You have no regular office and you do not have an office in your home. In this case, the location of your first business contact is considered your office. Transportation expenses between your home and this first contact are nondeductible commuting expenses. Transportation expenses between your last business contact and your home are also nondeductible commuting expenses. Although you cannot deduct the costs of these trips, you can deduct the costs of going from one client or customer to another.
Your employer sends you to a one-week training session at a different office in the same city. You travel directly from your home to the training location and return each day. You can deduct the cost of your daily round-trip transportation between your home and the training location.

In your case when you have non-employee income 1099-MISC you are allowed to deduct the travel mileage incurred to earn that income. You will be reporting those miles on schedule C.

AnaluisaAnswer

Employee

Here are some examples:

You have 2 jobs and you travel to both places in one day. The commuting miles to the 1st job are not deductible but the commuting miles from the 1st job to the 2nd job are. The commuting miles from the 2nd job to your home are not deductible. Whether or not you work for the same employer, you can deduct your expense of getting from one workplace to the other. However, if for some personal reason you do not go directly from one location to the other, you cannot deduct more than the amount it would have cost to go directly from the first location to the second.
If you have a qualifying home office for your business, the round-trips between your office and your client's place of business.
You have no regular office and you do not have an office in your home. In this case, the location of your first business contact is considered your office. Transportation expenses between your home and this first contact are nondeductible commuting expenses. Transportation expenses between your last business contact and your home are also nondeductible commuting expenses. Although you cannot deduct the costs of these trips, you can deduct the costs of going from one client or customer to another.
Your employer sends you to a one-week training session at a different office in the same city. You travel directly from your home to the training location and return each day. You can deduct the cost of your daily round-trip transportation between your home and the training location.

In your case when you have non-employee income 1099-MISC you are allowed to deduct the travel mileage incurred to earn that income. You will be reporting those miles on schedule C.

kneeland24Author

Employee

For my particular job, which is in roofing, I was required to travel between multiple job sites during any given day. There was an office for my employer, however, I did majority of my work out of my own residence. I would say, on average, that I spent approx 60% of my time traveling to and from or at a job site, 30% at home, and 10% in my employer's office. I am not sure if this helps. I did earn a small amount of 1099 income for commissions made on a roofing sale I had, however, it was only around $1700.