Oh so smug

[Snaggletooth]

Metropolitan Area - Child of the IRS

The IRS created this concept of a "Metropolitan Area" to disallow mileage.

A guy in Moncton, SC can drive 35 miles to Charleston and deduct his mileage, provided it is otherwise deductible. His brother lives in King of Prussia, PA and drives to Trenton, NJ, some 50 miles and cannot deduct his mileage because he has not left his "metropolitan area." Ridiculous.

The prevailing thinking was to amalgamate large metropolitan areas into a single "tax home." This means a commute to any location in the expanded area is deemed the same as driving from residence to a single fixed office. This entraps persons such as CPA auditors who drive to South Philadelphia one day and to Pennsauken, NJ the next, without first driving to the firm's headquarters in downtown Philadelphia.

In addition to my tax practice, this poster services a customer in Nashville 12-14 hours per week, Huntsville AL some 12-14 hours per week, and another customer in Southern TN some 12-14 hours per week. I deduct almost all this mileage. Since I operate in a rural area, no single "metropolitan area" encompasses my itinery.

[oceanlovin'ea]

Jg

Any way you could email or fax me a copy of that chart. If so, I'll give you my email address or fax number whichever you want.
Thanks.

Linda F

[Black Bart]

Ah-ha! A fellow unindicted co-conspirator,

The IRS created this concept of a "Metropolitan Area" to disallow mileage.

A guy in Moncton, SC can drive 35 miles to Charleston and deduct his mileage, provided it is otherwise deductible. His brother lives in King of Prussia, PA and drives to Trenton, NJ, some 50 miles and cannot deduct his mileage because he has not left his "metropolitan area." Ridiculous.

The prevailing thinking was to amalgamate large metropolitan areas into a single "tax home." This means a commute to any location in the expanded area is deemed the same as driving from residence to a single fixed office. This entraps persons such as CPA auditors who drive to South Philadelphia one day and to Pennsauken, NJ the next, without first driving to the firm's headquarters in downtown Philadelphia.

In addition to my tax practice, this poster services a customer in Nashville 12-14 hours per week, Huntsville AL some 12-14 hours per week, and another customer in Southern TN some 12-14 hours per week. I deduct almost all this mileage. Since I operate in a rural area, no single "metropolitan area" encompasses my itinery.

Thanks for the support, pal. I knew there must be somebody else out there who deplored that "metropolitan area" hogwash. After our demise, hopefully we'll be remembered as martyrs and/or spoken of kindly.

"Well, look at the bright side. We'll all have high schools named after us." -- Movie: "Deep Impact." Female astronaut muses re looming suicide mission.

[Bees Knees]

History trivia

Bees, you can solve this problem altogether, and eliminate the mileage, if you just go to work for H & R Block.

Block has offices at kiosks inside Wal-Mart.

So you can just clock out at Block, put on the blue vest, and clock in at Wal-Mart...

When I first went to work for Tax Men, Inc. (TMI) back in the 1980s, we had temporary desks set up at all the Twin City Federal offices around the Minneapolis St. Paul metro area. The main office was located on the corner of 10th and Main in Hopkins where we did taxes and did the QF during the off season. But we also had a couple of dozen tax preparers sitting behind desks at TCF offices, waiting for people to come in, make a deposit, get a free toaster, and have their taxes done, all at the same time.