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Best answer by Irene2805
Generally, commuting is travel between your home and a work location. Commuting miles are a personal expense and are not deductible.

Business miles are incurred when you go from one workplace to another workplace and are a deductible expense. 

As an example:
  • In a typical work day as a sales rep, you go from your home to your office.  - These are commuting miles.
  • From your office, you travel to Client A, then to Client B, etc.  All of this mileage is considered business miles.
  • From your last client you go home.  This, again, is commuting mileage and not deductible. 

If you are self-employed and your office is located 
in your home, you can deduct miles you travel to meet with business clients or perform other business-related functions.
If your office is located 
away from your home, you cannot deduct miles you travel to go to your office.


2 replies

Irene2805Answer
June 1, 2019
Generally, commuting is travel between your home and a work location. Commuting miles are a personal expense and are not deductible.

Business miles are incurred when you go from one workplace to another workplace and are a deductible expense. 

As an example:
  • In a typical work day as a sales rep, you go from your home to your office.  - These are commuting miles.
  • From your office, you travel to Client A, then to Client B, etc.  All of this mileage is considered business miles.
  • From your last client you go home.  This, again, is commuting mileage and not deductible. 

If you are self-employed and your office is located 
in your home, you can deduct miles you travel to meet with business clients or perform other business-related functions.
If your office is located 
away from your home, you cannot deduct miles you travel to go to your office.


February 5, 2020

If I have a home office and drop my child off at a sitter's on the way to a meeting with a client,  when do I start/stop tracking miles? 

June 1, 2019

Found a helpful bit, (thanks smart people on the internet) pretty sure this checks out. 


"The IRS allows businesses to deduct expenses for business travel by owners and employees, but no deductions are allowed for commuting expenses. The rationale is that everyone commutes (travels to work), so commuting is not a business but a personal expense.

On the other hand, expenses for business travel are a business expense and therefore are deductible. The IRS makes a distinction between commuting and business travel; commuting expenses are allowed only in specific cases, while business travel expenses are usually allowed, within limits."