liz, we have hashed this out about once a year, or more, for many, many years and the professionals agree that you do NOT have to take a home office deduction to take the mileage from home to the first shop, as long as you do NOT travel via the office that you use for your W-9 job.
Edited to add: I have been audited and there was NO question that they allowed all of my mileage! I do NOT claim a home office deduction. And, btw, the auditor said he didn't understand why my return was even flagged for audit, since I had fully explained and documented the "issue" when I submitted the return. That issue had nothing to do with SE or Schedule C, btw, but, of course, they had me explain every schedule. And, I had contemporaneous written documentation that about 92 percent of my mileage that year was for business purposes. If the 92 % wasn't raising any red flags, you can bet that the automated checking and the audit combined did not alarm anyone at IRS about my 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.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/2017 08:33PM by walesmaven.