For your Schedule C, self employment earnings-
Publication 463 lists the trips you can deduct as a self-employed subcontractor:
- Driving from your place of business to a job site, for example a plumber driving to a house to make repairs.
- Travel between different jobs, such as an electrician working on two different construction sites.
- Attending meetings away from your place of business.
- Driving to meetings with clients.
- Coming back to your workplace after any of these trips.
Driving from home to your office or a job site isn't usually deductible, unless you work out of a home office.
If your mileage for a trip is deductible, you can also deduct any parking fees you pay. If you have to pay a parking garage while attending a meeting at your client's office, for instance, those fees are deductible. If you pay parking fees when you go to your own office, they're not.
Many taxpayers over the years have tried to justify home-to-office commuting trips (not deductible) or purely recreational trips as business trips and therefore deductible. The IRS has a list of arguments that won't fly:
- You were talking with a client on a cell phone.
- You were talking to a colleague who shared the ride with you.
- You have an advertising display on your personal car (e.g., "McMann, Breckenridge and Holt, attorneys").
- You carry tools or papers needed for work. If you have to pay for a trailer to transport equipment, the trailer costs are deductible, though.
