Mailemn expenses

[ruthc]

Have a new client who is a mailman (been for many yrs). I have his last yr's return showing a lot of mileage expense for gasoline. I don't know of any rules on them getting this expense unless they use their vehicle which he does not. He did say that he used to be in one town for delivery, but because of the postal service making so many cuts he is now required to go to a town that is 35 miles away each day. I believe that is just commuting. If he had not taken this long commute he wouldhave had to resign. I think if they kept changing his location for work then he could get the mileage to anywhere outside of his regular work location.

Any thoughts? Thanks

[Burke]

I assume he is driving his own car to the town 35 miles away? That is commuting and not deductible. If he is driving a postal vehicle, certainly it is not deductible.

[Bees Knees]

Well, it depends. If he goes to the local post office to sort mail, then drives 35 miles to a different town to deliver the mail on foot, the mileage is deductible as job to job miles.

[FEDUKE404]

Sounds like commuting

Well, for starters, you don't get any deduction "for gasoline" alone.

As Bees Knees stated, there are two scenarios possible. First is driving to/from the "new" town every day. Commuting, no deduction, end of that story! Second is first driving to "old" workplace, then driving to/from "new" town. Likely possible mileage deduction, with appropriate records, for same day travel between multiple work locations.

What is missing here is, IF it was an "unusual" business travel situation, why did the employer not reimburse the mailman for legitimate expenses? (Assuming this is not one of those white USPS box trucks.)

You may wish to ascertain if there were any such employer payments, and/or if such were available to the employee.

It should be noted there are special rules for rural mail carriers (see Pub 463) if that is the case here.

My guess is you're dealing with plain vanilla commuting, subject to more facts being placed on the TTB table.

FE

[ruthc]

I agree

So far I am looking at just commuting miles and no gasoline. He didn't give me any info on mileage or gas, but seeing it was listed on last year's I want to make sure I don't miss any deductions he is entitled to. I got the impression that it was last year that he was told to change his location. So maybe just for last year he had to go to his original post office and from there he was told to go to the location 35 miles away. I need to call him for more info.
Thank you everyone for your input. Again, thanks to the forum!!! I am on the right page!!!