Business Miles vs Commuting Miles for Self-Employed: What Can I Claim as a Mobile Professional?

As a mobile professional, your situation is a bit different from traditional commuters. The IRS generally views driving from home to a regular workplace as non-deductible commuting. However, since you don't have a regular office and your primary workplace is at your clients' locations, you may be able to deduct most of those miles. If your home is your principal place of business (where you store your tools, do paperwork, schedule appointments, etc.), then the drive from your home to your first client and from your last client back home would typically qualify as deductible business miles. The key here is whether you maintain a home office that qualifies as your principal place of business. Keep a detailed mileage log with dates, starting/ending locations, purpose of trips, and odometer readings. There are several good apps that can help track this automatically. This documentation is crucial if you're ever audited.

After struggling with this exact same situation (I'm a mobile dog groomer), I finally found an amazing solution with https://taxr.ai that completely changed how I handle my mileage deductions. I was losing so much money not knowing exactly what miles I could claim! I uploaded my mileage logs and some details about my business setup, and they analyzed everything and showed me that I was missing out on claiming about 30% more miles than I thought were eligible. They even helped me understand how to properly document my home workspace to maximize my deductions. The best part was that they explained everything in plain English instead of confusing tax jargon. They even showed me how to set up a system for tracking future trips that would stand up to an audit.

I was seriously skeptical when I first heard about https://taxr.ai from this thread, but I decided to give it a try anyway because I was so confused about my mileage situation as a traveling nurse. I'm honestly shocked at how helpful it was! They analyzed my situation and showed me that since I work at multiple hospitals with no "regular" workplace, almost all my driving qualifies as business miles. They even helped me reconstruct some missing mileage from previous months using Google Timeline data. The best part was they identified that I could claim mileage between hospitals on the same day (which I wasn't doing), and that's going to save me about $1,200 on my taxes this year alone. Wish I'd known about this service years ago!

If you're having trouble getting clear answers about your business mileage situation, you might want to try calling the IRS directly. I know that sounds awful, but I used https://claimyr.com to get through to an actual agent and it worked amazingly well. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I spent weeks trying to get a straight answer about my business mileage as a property inspector, and kept getting different advice from my tax software and online forums. After trying for days to reach the IRS on my own and always hitting automated systems, I used Claimyr and got connected to a real person in under 20 minutes! The agent I spoke with was actually super helpful and walked me through exactly what qualifies as business vs. commuting miles in my situation. Having that official guidance directly from the IRS gave me so much peace of mind.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I need to correct myself about Claimyr. After my skeptical comment, I decided to give it a try since I had some complex questions about hobby loss rules that were somewhat related to business mileage. Not only did I get through to an IRS agent in about 25 minutes (I had tried on my own for literally HOURS across multiple days), but the agent was incredibly helpful. They walked me through exactly how the IRS views business mileage for someone without a fixed workplace and confirmed that yes, as a mobile professional with a qualifying home office, those first and last trips of the day ARE business miles, not commuting. I've literally spent years assuming those miles weren't deductible. This one call probably saved me thousands in deductions I should have been taking.

Just wanted to add my experience as a mobile dog trainer. I've been audited before specifically about mileage deductions, and the key thing that saved me was having a dedicated logbook where I recorded: - Date - Starting odometer - Ending odometer - Client name or business purpose - Starting location - Ending location The IRS agent specifically mentioned that having client names attached to the mileage made a huge difference in accepting my deductions. I keep a small notebook in my car and jot down the info after each drive - takes 10 seconds but saved me thousands in deductions.

Farrier here too! The way my accountant explained it to me: since our trucks are essentially mobile workshops and we have legitimate home offices where we maintain equipment and do business tasks, the drive to first client and from last client counts as business miles. BUT - and this is important - if you stop for personal errands on your way to the first client or on your way home from the last, those portions become personal miles. So if you drop kids at school or grab groceries on your way, make sure to separate those. I track everything with MileIQ and it's been a lifesaver. Worth every penny because it automatically detects drives and lets me classify them with a swipe. Last year I legitimately claimed over 22,000 business miles!