Saturday, March 17, 2007
Auto Expense: From One Work Location To Another
June --
I am technically a full-time student, but I also work as an independent contractor babysitting in different hotels in downtown Chicago. Generally, I have to drive down there and park, and I am confused about whether I can deduct my parking fees, or what not.
I do have them email me every job, which I have to check on my home computer before leaving, but I don't know if this could technically be considered "work."
Andi
Andi, being a full-time student has no bearing on whether you can be an indie or not. If you do something to make money, you are self-employed.
Only mileage from one job location to another is deductible. So from one hotel to the next: Yes.
From home to hotel: No.
Yes, parking is a business expense.
June
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Just a follow up question to this one June... if those babysitting jobs were considered temporary assignments, with no plan for those assignments to still be there after a year, can she then use her home as an administrative place of business?
I do medical locum tenens jobs for various clinics and offices in my city and sometimes have to drive far from it. As for the clinics I work at, all would be considered temporary. I do have a hospital moonlighting job that recently became more permanent, but has lasted less than a year as of 12/31/06, so I will not deduct the car mileage from this place in 2007, although I did deduct it in 2006. What do you think about this?
Quipuha,
Home office has nothing to do with how long you work on a project. Go to the "Categories" on the left, then choose and and read the posts about home office.
You may deduct transportation from one work location to another. Work location can mean a client's office, a meeting with a business colleague, business errands, etc. Has nothing to do with how long you work.
You say from home to job site you cannot deduct mileage. I run my business from my home (my home address is the address of my registered business), so I often do some work in the morning from home, then head out to a clients site. Would this count as job site to job site transportation?
Hello Anon,
If you have a legitimate home office then you may treat your home as a work location. No legitimate home office, no work location.
Think about it ... if you were allowed to treat your kitchen table as a work location then why not the beach where you read business books under the sun?
-- June
Do I calculated mileage from office to service call and back to office (round trip miles) or just one way?
Yes, from one workplace to another and then to another work place and then to another work place and then to an... means just that.
Point A: Office = work place
To point B: service call = work place
Back to point A: office = work place.
thanks for this post and your reply to comments helped alot. Im a full time student for locum tenens phys. and i also work as an independent contractor.
Good going!
Cheers,
Laura
Laura, you are very welcome.
-- June
Post a Comment