# Commuting miles



## itendstonight (Feb 10, 2019)

So I’m confused. I was under the impression the moment you turn the app on, those are deductible miles. But now H&R block says no. What gives?!


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## swathdiver (Apr 18, 2019)

itendstonight said:


> So I'm confused. I was under the impression the moment you turn the app on, those are deductible miles. But now H&R block says no. What gives?!


For the simple fact that that document mentions 2015 data I would not use it and look for something up to date.


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

You can if you count your home as a home office, thereby somewhere you work from home.

You don't have to do your *actual* work at home. You just need some garage space or parking lot space you keep your car and detail it? As well as spending a measurable amount of time doing your accounting/sending support emails to Uber.

Your justification for your home office is doing your accounting, lost and found management, light vehicle maintenance cleanup ect at home.

All of this should amount to a considerable amount or time (my estimation it could be up to an hour a week just vacuuming out your car and cleaning it up)

How much time do you spend with support messages with uber?

So it's not commuting miles, your running a 1 man car-hire service from home.

And it's acceptable for a taxi to have miles driven with no actual fare attributable, because sometimes you dry somewhere and come up dry.

Between having 2+ 1099s with partially overlapping mileage logs plus your master mileage log....

The IRS would have to work exceptionally hard to identify that you are even writing off commuting miles.


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## BigRedDriver (Nov 28, 2018)

itendstonight said:


> So I'm confused. I was under the impression the moment you turn the app on, those are deductible miles. But now H&R block says no. What gives?!


Where are you commuting too? If you have to drive to get to your Uber / Lyft car, then those would be commuting miles. Mine is parked in my driveway. The moment I turn my apps on I am searching for work and deductible.


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

itendstonight said:


> So I'm confused. I was under the impression the moment you turn the app on, those are deductible miles. But now H&R block says no. What gives?!


That makes no sense to me. On app, online available for pings should be good deductible miles as Ive always understood it. It would also be included in your Uber mileage summary.



BigRedDriver said:


> Where are you commuting too? If you have to drive to get to your Uber / Lyft car, then those would be commuting miles. Mine is parked in my driveway. The moment I turn my apps on I am searching for work and deductible.


Hows TripLog working out for you @BigRedDriver ? I am loving it. I even got auto trip settings tuned in to be working well so even less work than manual mode. Also, if you log in on the website Ive played around enough to make some customized reports. Pretty cool.


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## KD_LA (Aug 16, 2017)

itendstonight said:


> So I'm confused. I was under the impression the moment you turn the app on, those are deductible miles. But now H&R block says no. What gives?!


My tax accountant says those miles are indeed deductible, so do several more recent articles.

https://blog.stridehealth.com/post/1099-tax-mistakes"In reality, you can deduct your mileage on the way to the first passenger, between passengers, and on the way home at the end of the day."

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/tips-tax-deductions-uber-lyft-drivers.html"You can deduct the mileage you drive from the time you start driving in search of a passenger until you return home..."


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## KK2929 (Feb 9, 2017)

I agree with swathdiver -- 2015 doc. It is worded that any thing driven before the first (pax pickup) and after the last pax drop off is non-deductible. My H & R block does not agree. If you get into the car and log on --- you are available for pickups. Those miles are deductible. The key is that you must be logged on and available to pick up a pax. Any miles driven and you are not logged on are not deductible.


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## swathdiver (Apr 18, 2019)

KD_LA said:


> "You can deduct the mileage you drive from the time you start driving in search of a passenger until you return home..."


One can even deduct the mileage for a lunch business meeting, to and from. Love the avatar btw!


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