Deducting mileage - do I have to take the home office deduction to qualify?

I work for a small business. I do all of my work (except client site visits) from my home office. However, since I also use my home office for personal use during non-working hours, I assume I cannot take the home office deduction (correct)?

Here is my question regarding mileage - I'm testing this using both TaxCut and TurboTax. In both cases, when I enter my mileage, it does not seem to reduce my tax owed. When I tell the program I want to use the home office deduction, then my mileage makes a difference. If I tell it not to do the home office deduction, then my entering mileage makes no difference. So, can I only deduct my mileage if I take the home office deduction? I haven't read anything to indicate this, but the actions of the tax software programs leads me to believe that this is the case.

I don't know if this matters, but I itemize my deductions (mostly due to mortgage interest & real estate taxes paid). I do not take the standard deduction.

For the home office deduction, if you use a portion of your home just for business, you may deduct your home expenses up to the percentage of square feet you use for business when compared to the total square feet of your home (If you use 100 sq. ft for business and the total home is 1000 sq ft, it is 10%).

You do not have to take home office deductions to be able to take mileage on your vehicle. I am not familiar with Tax Cut or Turbo Tax, but there is probably a spot that you can put the vehicle as an asset (listed property) of the business and then put the total miles driven in 2005 and total business miles driven in 2005 (pre-September 1 is 0.405 per mile and post-August 31 is 0.485 per mile).

The way you're describing this makes it sound like it is unreimbursed expenses for a job you receive a W-2 from, and these deductions would be filed on a Form 2106 for Schedule A, which is subject to a 2% floor, meaning if your AGI is 100,000, you have to have 2,000 in deductions before you get one dollar deducted. You will also have to be able to itemize on Sch. A before your tax would change.

If this is your business and you're self-employed, there should be no limitation on the mileage, unless you accidentally have it set to where you take actual expenses (fuel, oil, repairs, depreciation, etc.). You have to take one or the other, and once you decide which one to take on that vehicle, you cannot change in the future.

I'm probably not much help, but hope this does help you out some. Good Luck.

You do not have to take the home office to take mileage. I will put this on my watch list because I need to know how you get pd to tell you where to put the mileage. If you get pd on a 1099 you can put it right on the schedule C or you can fill out the auto worksheet for the schedule C. If you are a w-2 employee you will put it on the form 2106. The 2106 will go to the schedule A. Which employee exp have to be 2% of your income to get dollar 1. If you don't have enough deductions on your schedule A it will automatically take the standard deduction. If you are pd on a 1099 it should take the mileage right off of your income. You need to brake the mileage into 2 groups. From Jan-Aug and from Sept-Dec. The mileage rate changes from 40.5 to 48.5. I'll look to see if you post more info or to see if this helps.Your welcome. About the home office. Is it for the convince of your employer? If you do mostly business in that office you can deduct the home office. You can do some personals stuff in the office. I do personal stuff in my office at work as do many employees. On the 2106 you can add anything your employer has you do for work. If he has you dress a special way you can take uniforms and cleaning of uniforms. Cell phone (basic rate if not all use for business) if that is how the boss or clients get intouch with you. If your not taking the home office you can take the internet if you use it for work. There are so many things you can take to help push you to the 2% mark. Also put in what you pd for tax prep last yr on the scheduale A if you bought the software hten the amount of that. I hope this helps you out!!

If I am not mistaken you have to claim home office for your mileage to be used. Not sure if it ask you for a tax id number for your home office . To be on the safe side I would ask an tax accountant.