topic Deductible miles in Deductions & credits

Deductible miles

Kennpi — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 19:55:55 GMT

In 2019 I was an independent contractor for a grocery delivery service and I’m curious which miles are deductible. Can I deduct from my home to store to customers home back to my home, or just store to customers home? I’ve seen people say both things.

Re: Deductible miles

JohnW222 — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 20:11:35 GMT

You can't claim to miles from your home or to the store, or from the store to your home -- that's considered your commute, and expenses for that can't be deducted.

The mileage from the store to customers' home and back is deductible.

Re: Deductible miles

Kennpi — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 21:17:44 GMT

So if I drive to my home from a customer’s home, that can’t be deducted either?

Re: Deductible miles

GiseleD — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 21:32:32 GMT

Like everything in the tax code, it depends. As long as your home is not considered your principal place of business, you can follow this guidance from IRS Pub 463:

Home.

Home is the place where a taxpayer resides. Transportation expenses between home and the main or regular place of work are personal commuting expenses and are not deductible. A taxpayer can have more than one regular work location on different days. In your case, your "regular place of work" is likely the grocery store.

Temporary work location.

A temporary work location is a place where the taxpayer’s work assignment is realistically expected to last, and does in fact last, one year or less. If the taxpayer does not have a regular or main work location, transportation to a temporary work location is considered nondeductible commuting.

Second job. If a taxpayer regularly works at two or more places in one day, whether or not for the same employer, deduct transportation expenses of getting from one work place to another (one grocery store to another). If the taxpayer does not go directly from a first job to a second job, only deduct transportation expenses of going directly from a first job to a second job. Do not deduct transportation costs between home and a second job on a day off from the main job.

If you are delivering groceries to the customer, you would be going from the store right to their house. I'm not sure how your house would factor into this because you are not delivering groceries from your house; you are delivering them from the store.

Re: Deductible miles

Kennpi — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 23:16:52 GMT

Thank you for the info. The specific grocery store I go to changes from order to order. With all the orders I’ve done, I’ve been to about 10 different grocery store locations. So I still can’t deduct the drive to the store even though I don’t go to the same one every time? I’ve seen many other independent contracts in this business say they deduct miles from when they leave their house, throughout the day doing orders, until they get back home so it’s just confusing.

Re: Deductible miles

DavidD66 — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 02:02:15 GMT

If you did not report to a single location each day, then you can deduct the mileage to the stores and then home.