Just realized I've been calculating mileage wrong for 4 years

I had a meeting with a CPA last week for my freelance design work and she asked me how I track mileage. I told her I just log the total miles from the start of the day to the end. She looked at me and said 'you can only deduct the trips between jobs, not from your home to the first stop.' I've been overestimating by about 300 miles a month this whole time. Anyone else made this mistake or am I the only one?

3 comments

3 Comments

zarag1715d ago

Made that same mistake myself for a full year before my accountant gently laughed at me (ouch).

michael80315d ago

Man, that's rough. Four years is a long time to be doing it wrong. I bet you left some serious money on the table with the IRS. The home to first job rule trips up a ton of people, I hear about it all the time. Pretty standard mistake though, don't beat yourself up over it.

kimr9114d ago

Oh man. My buddy did the exact same thing. Worked from home for two years and his accountant finally asked him what he was doing. Poor guy had to refile three years of returns.