Today TaxMama® hears from TaxSeason in the TaxQuips Forum, with this question. “Is there an easy or quick way to figure the commuting miles for people who file a Schedule C? (ie…5% of business miles)?”

Dear Tax,

Certainly there is.

And these days, it’s even easier.

Use Mapquest. Enter their home address and their business address.

Print out the mileage information.

Multiply by 2 (round-trip).

Multiply by the number of days they went to work.

And voila! Provable commuter miles.

(In the past, I would just ask them how far to work and then do the math.)

Why would I ever use percentage of anything? Never.

After all, the ‘commute’ is a fixed distance.

Any trip not going to the regular work location, is no longer commuting, right?

It’s at least a temporary workplace; or they are business miles.

Of course, if they file a Schedule C and work from home – commuting miles are ZERO!

And remember, you can find answers to all kinds of questions about business expenses, and other tax and business issues, free. Where? Where else? At www.TaxMama.com.

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