I'm a pizza delivery driver and plan to claim my mileage expenses for the year. I'm just confused as to why that section of the refund isn't appearing when I attempt to finish filing - and don't want to risk losing out on that return if I'm owed it.
If your income is reported to you on a W-2 form, as is typical, you can't deduct any employee business expenses, such as auto mileage or expenses, from that income under current federal tax laws. That is why you are not seeing an option to enter your deductions.
Even if it's my own personal vehicle? The TurboTax website does allow for auto mileage to be deducted - which I have entered, and was given a deduction amount on that specific page. That amount does not appear when I reach the end of the filing process. I learned of the deductions for auto mileage, or fuel receipts, through co-workers who have deducted in the past, and have filed the same way this year. So now my confusion is even more than before.
In December 2017, Congress passed a tax reform bill which included the suspension of several federal deductions for tax years 2018–2025. The federal deduction of Job Related Expenses on Form 2106 was included in those suspended. So, your co-workers may have used this deduction to deduct mileage for travel between worksites, in the past, but now cannot on the federal return unless you work in one of these specific professions or situations:
Some states still do allow the deduction. The information is entered in the federal return so that it flows to the state return but it does not change the deductions on the federal return itself. So if you are itemizing deductions, you may still benefit from this on your state return.
This TurboTax Help article has additional information on these deductions Job Related Expenses