From where do you start your mileage?

Specialties Home Health

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From the office or from home from where you actually work? My employer quotes federal law which states mileage must be calculated from the office. I have searched and cannot find this law. In reality there is infrequent cause for me to go to the office at all, thereby making it "illegal" to start my mileage from MY office, which is home. I simply disagree.

No, it is from the office. You will find it explained in the instructions in the IRS book that tells you how to take the business use of vehicle deduction, publication 17, or the specific IRS booklet for business deductions. What I did, was figure out the mileage as if I went to the office and started from there, even though that was not what I actually did.

the way i have always understood it was......30 miles from home to office,,home to first patient 45 miles...you can take 15 miles.

Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

what callioter said...calculate mileage for first and last visit as if you are starting and ending at your office.

At my agency, we calculate mileage from our office...if we don't come into the office that day, we start our mileage from the first patients home, however, if the first patients house is further than the office would be, then we can claim that mileage for reimbursement. But at the end of the day, there is obviously still mileage that we are not reimbursed for, that you can write off on your taxes. My agency also only pays 80% of the IRS reimbursement rate, so I write off the other 20% that I'm not reimbursed. This is what my CPA has always done for me.

The mileage allowed starts and stops at the office. On the weekends the mileage starts and ends at home.

And why would weekends have any difference to IRS law? If allowed on weekends, why not all the time? If you work from home using personal electricity, internet, and other expenses let alone space in the home, why not be allowed to count mileage from home?

Check with a qualified tax consultant if you have any doubts.

the way i have always understood it was......30 miles from home to office,,home to first patient 45 miles...you can take 15 miles.

Yeah, that's how I do it too!

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