After Audit Confusion

[hatlady]

New union electrician client just went thru a Federal audit in December for 2004. Union hall located 70 miles from EE residence one way. EE gets orders from hall the day before and then reports direct to work site which could be 100 miles away or more. Auditor stated that 70 miles roundtrip would be considered commuting, therefore disallowed as a business mileage deduction. Question is where did the auditor come up with the 70 mile round trip disallowance?? Do they just pick this out of the air or is there a statute that designates a flat 35 mile one way commute rule? Has anyone else experienced this with their union construction clients? Commuting is not deductible but just can't understand why the auditor did this.

[jainen]

>>can't understand why the auditor did this<<

The auditor made a mistake in the taxpayer's favor. Not only should the commute between home and hall be twice seventy, but the trip from hall to worksite should also be treated as commute if within the general area where he usually works. You can take credit for effective representation in getting the auditor mixed up.

[Pacun]

If I read your post correctly, or better yet, if you stated your scenario correctly, the auditor is correct.

From home to Hall there is 70 miles. Electricians wakes up in the morning and drives (sometimes 100 miles) to customer site, works for the day and drives back to Hall to pick up his job order for next day (let's assume there is 40 miles). Then he drives back from hall to Home (70 miles). If tax payers deducted all miles (100 + 40 + 70), the auditor said... I am not going to allow 70 miles for this round trip, and I think he is correct.