recording mileage

I am visiting family who is about 150 miles away from me, and while i'm visiting them i took a really simple gas station shop. I have been recording mileage, but should I record the mileage from my house to the gas station? or should I record the mileage from my family members house to the gas station? from my family's house its only about 4 miles, my house about 150... I'm just asking because i'm not really traveling all that way for the shop, it was just along the way so why not.

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Under the circumstances, I would take the shorter mileage.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

I don't think there is any hard and fast rule about this. I think the amount of mileage from your house to the gas station for just one shop is a bit excessive. The IRS would probably frown on that one. It is worth asking your tax professional.

I was taking a mini-vacation (3 days, 2 nights) with round-trip mileage of approximately 250 miles. I performed four shops on the way there and four shops on the way back. I wrote off all that mileage. I did not include the mileage accrued on the "day off" where I did not perform any shops and only drove for fun. Oh ya, I asked for a bonus on all eight shops and received my asking price.

When I take shops while traveling (personal), where I am going to be anyway, I calculate the mileage from where I am to the shop. In your case, I would use the 4 miles, 8 miles, if you are making a round trip.

If I am shopping my way to and from a destination where I will then take some personal time off, I count the mileage both ways but NOT the miles driven at the destination on days that I am not doing shops. Example: I drove 2950 miles on a recent video road trip. Of that, 178 miles were specifically used on the 4 days that I spent with family in the Orlando area. Those were logged as personal miles. And, yes, I made money on that trip so the "profit motive" was satisfied.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

With the IRS it's all about intention. It's not likely that you intend to do a shop 150 miles away and while doing that shop you visit your family, unless the shop was a huge payer. Your intention is to visit family so you cannot claim for the trip to your family. While at your family's home you choose to go and do a shop then that is your intention and you can claim that.

The IRS looks at the "purpose" of the "trip." If the main purpose of the trip is family, and you spent an hour doing a shop, they will not likely allow the mileage that will make the shop a very losing proposition.

My personal policy is that unless the shops produce enough cash flow to cover the gas, I do not count the miles I drove to get to my personal errand, but only the additional miles to get to the shop. On my spreadsheet this is "shop miles" in one column and "anyway" miles in the other. If I am doing seven mystery shops in Phoenix and run by my dad's for an hour since I'm already in the area, then only any additional miles I drove to get to my Dad's are not counted; the rest of the trip is business.

If I fly to Italy in October like I'm planning and pick up a mystery shop in the Heathrow airport on the way, you can bet everything you own that they will not let me deduct the airfare to Heathrow as a business expense against the $30 I made in the airport.

That's an exaggeration, but your 150 mile drive is the same situation.

Time to build a bigger bridge.

But if you rent a car at the airport to drive to your shops, is that tax deductible? Especially if you were not planning on renting a car in the first place but need a vehicle for shop purposes. I am guessing that you don't record the mileage on the rental vehicle.

Ok thanks guys! Im just going to mark it as 8 miles because I just went to my familys house then the gas station then to my familys house. And it was nothing big AT ALL. It was just close and super easy money.

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@Sybil2 wrote:

But if you rent a car at the airport to drive to your shops, is that tax deductible? Especially if you were not planning on renting a car in the first place but need a vehicle for shop purposes. I am guessing that you don't record the mileage on the rental vehicle.

Yes, but I'd be sure the fee pays more than the rental car costs or you're on shaky ground regarding your profit motive. If you use the car to also get to your relative's house, or go to Disneyland, or anything else, you'd need to pro-rate the cost of the car. So if you rent the car and drive 150 miles while you have it and 10 are for the shop and 140 are personal, then 10/150 of the rental car and gas cost is a shopping deduction and the rest is personal and not deductible. You can't say "I only rented it because of the shop but once I had it I used it for other things" and try to take the whole cost as a deduction because, well, frankly, the IRS auditor wasn't born yesterday.

Time to build a bigger bridge.

i wouldn't record the miles to the relatives...i'm sure IRS would argue that.....you would not be traveling to another job or your 'home base' now if you take a 2nd job by the relatives home...you might be able to pull that off!

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