@DianeW777I am just trying to understand the game enough to play it reasonably well, hard to do if current documentation (which makes the explicit statements referenced) is superseded by a nine year old bill. Thanks for the time to supply references that at least have substance (nice to understand why)!!
Also, I should add to what I wrote below a few hours back, that I hope the Tax Act bill didn't nuke the possibility of having a tax home that is not your residence (if you're self employed and don't have a home office), If it did then my nice logic train below is garbage and I've wasted a bunch more time on Pub 463. It's off to find information on it.
Per your answer, Unfortunately any mileage not directly related to your self employment is not deductible.
The self employed deduction seems to be pretty constrained too.
If you don't have a home office (audit flag) my understanding is.
If your residence is your tax home as defined automatically by meeting all 3 criteria (pub 463 chapter 1), then any travel to the first, single, 1099 job (or any self employment job) from your residence in a single day would be considered commuting.
If the principal job can be considered your tax home, then only the travel to and from the principal job as a self employed person is disallowed. Cleaning houses not all self employment jobs issue 1099's, so I used the verbiage self employment.
It appears that a principal job is the first choice.
Tax Home
Generally, your tax home is your regular place of business.., regardless of where you maintain your family home. If you don't have a regular place of business, or have more than one: .. your tax home is your main place of business.
If for self employment, one job is a main job (as defined by time and significant income) then from what I read it may be considered "The Tax Home"
If no business main job then you move on to determining if the residence is your tax home.
Factors used to determine tax home. If you don’t have a regular or main place of .. work, use ..three factors to determine where your tax home is.
1. You perform part of your business in the area of your main home and use that home for lodging while doing business in the area. (yes)
2. You have living expenses at your main home that you duplicate because your business requires you to be away from that home. (no)
3. You haven’t abandoned the area in which both your historical place of lodging and your claimed main home are located; you have a member or members of your family living at your main home; or you often use that home for lodging. (yes)
If you satisfy all three.., your tax home is the home where you regularly live. If you satisfy only two factors, you may have a tax home depending on all the facts and circumstances
Alternately it may be the main place of business or work.
Only 2 of 3 for the residence so maybe, but also maybe the main job. So the main job looks to be defensible.
Main place of business or work. If you have more than one place of work, consider the following when determining which one is your main place of business or work.
•The total time you ordinarily spend in each place.
•The level of your business activity in each place.
•Whether your income from each place is significant or insignificant.
A self employment job that is not temporary (more than 1 year), has significant time and income associated would seem to fit.
