Commuting or deductible mileage?

[Jesse]

I changed my title, as Bob pointed out the answer to temp job is not what I'm looking for. Thank you for the responses but I am still curious to more of your and others opinions.

Is receiving instructions and gathering some needed tools to take to the job site enough to qualify mileage to be deductible? What if the Employee doesn't need any tools that morning so goes straight to the job site?

I have a construction worker who does go to the shop, maybe to the lumber yard and some days just to the job site. He does get a nonaccountable gas allowance because he does a lot of running. I have calculated the mileage from his home to the shop each day as commuting, and beyond that as deductible business mileage. Now I'm wondering if each of the job sites is actually his place of employment and I should not have deducted this mileage?

Now I have two employees - same Employer - one works primarily outside the metropolitan area and requires overnight stay, the other prefers to stay in state and drives anywhere from 30 to 250 miles round trip back and forth to the job, but never stays overnight. Can both of them, neither of them or only one of the two claim the mileage deduction?

[Brad Imsdahl]

This is a very touchy subject for a lot of tax preparers. Read the information on page 10-2, 10-4, and 10-5 in TTB. Then draw your own conclusion.

My opinion is the rules are inconsistent, and highly interpretive, and often abused. You can deduct mileage to a temporary location if you normally drive to a regular place of business each day, but if that regular place of business keeps changing on you, then you can’t deduct mileage to a temporary location. Just how long you have to work at a location to be regular is unclear. A temporary location means one year or less. However, a regular location is not necessarily at least one year, as it depends upon facts and circumstances.

The best advice for construction workers and others who have irregular work locations is to get an office in home. That way all mileage becomes deductible.

[New York Enrolled Agent]

Brad
Are you tongue in cheek on the home office??? These guys are EMPLOYEES - convenience of the employer requirement still exists.

[Brad Imsdahl]

All my construction workers are self employed sub contractors. If the guy is an employee, there really is not much you can do for them, other than the regular / temp work location rule.