It depends. Commuting miles are considered personal use miles and are not deductible. Business miles can be deductible if you are an employee (as a job-related expense, if you itemize and are subject to a 2% AGI limitation) or if you are self-employed (as a business use of your vehicle)
For someone who is considered an employee:
No - If you are an employee and this is your regular place of work, then this would be commuting miles and not deductible.
Yes - If you are an employee and this is a temporary work location. If you have one or more regular work locations away from your home and you commute to a temporary work location in the same trade or business, you can deduct the expenses of the daily round-trip transportation between your home and the temporary location, regardless of distance. Also if you go to your usual work location, then drive to another location (like a different playing field), you will be able to take business miles on the drive between the one field location to the other field location.
Please refer to this IRS link for more information about Transportation Costs
If you have any deductible business mileages as an employee, you can report your business miles as an employee under job-related expenses:
You would enter your unreimbursed employment expenses under Federal Taxes>Deductions and Credits> I'll choose what I work on (or jump to full list)> scroll down to Employment Expenses> Job-related expenses (start/update). Use the TurboTax guide to help you enter these expense.
- Say "yes" to question "Did you have any of these expenses in 2015 for your W-2 income?" under the screen titled "Employment Expenses Related to a W-2".
- after about 6 to 10 question screens, you will get to a screen titled "Job-Related Expenses" you can put this information here. List as "additional unreimbursed business miles" (screenshot #1)
For someone who is considered self-employed:
Yes - If you are self-employed contractor, you can claim a deduction for miles driven to a job assignment. The starting point must be a home, an office or a job location, and the destination must also be a home, an office or a job location. You cannot deduct miles driven for other reasons even if you drove the same vehicle. The IRS requires you to take relatively straight routes from one location to another
To deduct business miles for self-employed in TurboTax Online or Desktop, please follow these steps:
- Once you are in your tax return, click on the “Business"” tab
- Next click on “I’ll choose what I work on” (jump to full list)
- Scroll down the screen until to come to the section “Business Income and Expense”
- Choose “Profit or Loss from Business ” and select start/revisit/update.
- If your business is already listed, choose to "edit"
- You will eventually get to a screen titled "Your () Business"
- Scroll down to Business Expenses and select "Business Vehicle Expense". (screenshot #2)
