Welcome to the MDTAXES Message Board

The MDTAXES Network is an affiliation of CPAs that specialize in the tax planning and preparation for young health care professionals.  Please leave your questions or comments for our CPAs, who visit the message board regularly, or review the answers, suggestions and ideas posted in response to your colleagues' questions.

Please check out our other Message Boards available at www.FindAGoodCPA.com.

Please note: We are NOT affiliated with the Maryland Tax Department. If you're looking for information about Maryland income taxes, go to www.marylandtaxes.com.

Automobile Expenses
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
Can I deduct auto expenses for the following moonlighting situation?

I am in the last year of residency in city A. I sign up for a moonlighting opportunity in city B, 100 miles away. I am planning to move to another state after residency to start a new job, so this moonlighting will last shorter than 1 year.

Typically, driving between home and a job is not deductible. However, would this situation count as temporary employment so that I would be eligible for the standard mileage deduction?

Zip Code: 44106

Re: Can I deduct auto expenses for the following moonlighting situation?

Communting beween your home and a temporary job location counts as deductible mileage. Here are the rules from IRS Publication 463, Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses:

Temporary work location. If you have one or more regular work locations away from your home and you commute to a temporary work location in the same trade or business, you can deduct the expenses of the daily round-trip transportation between your home and the temporary location, regardless of distance.

If your employment at a work location is realistically expected to last (and does in fact last) for 1 year or less, the employment is temporary unless there are facts and circumstances that would indicate otherwise.

If your employment at a work location is realistically expected to last for more than 1 year or if there is no realistic expectation that the employment will last for 1 year or less, the employment is not temporary, regardless of whether it actually lasts for more than 1 year.

If employment at a work location initially is realistically expected to last for 1 year or less, but at some later date the employment is realistically expected to last more than 1 year, that employment will be treated as temporary (unless there are facts and circumstances that would indicate otherwise) until your expectation changes. It will not be treated as temporary after the date you determine it will last more than 1 year.

Zip Code: 01801