Do the standard mileage deduction rules also apply on weekends?

Question

If you travel on a weekend for work do you have to back out your normal commute when you deduct the miles? This would be travel in addition to a normal commute during the work week.

Answer 1

Your normal commute is never deductible.  However, if you do work on weekends the normal rules apply.  You start counting miles after you get to your first jobsite of the day and stop counting after your last jobsite before you head home.

Answer 2

Your transportation and travel expenses are subject to the same rules whether you travel during the week or on a weekend.  

If you drive to your normal place of work on a weekend, it is not deductible.  If your employer sends you to a different location on the weekend, that trip is fully deductible.  You would not subtract your commuting miles in the second case.

Answer 3

Yes you have to back out your normal commuting miles since they are not deductible.  You can never take travel from home to your normal place of business, or from there back to home.

If you travel during your work,  you can take those.  For example, traveling from one work site to another within the same job, or even travel between two different jobs as long as you don't go home in between.  You can also take "commuting" if your company has you travel to a temporary work site for a while even though that normally would be considered commuting.

Transportation mileage is a very complex subject with tons of rules that aren't always logical at first, so it would pay to read them over if you plan to take them.  http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p463.pdf

But if you are an employee (not self employed or independent contractor), your deduction is very limited so most people don't get to take them anyways.  The mileage plus other work related expenses have to be added up, then 2% or your gross income subtracted from that.  If there is any left (and for most people, there isn't), the remainder is an itemized deduction.  If you don't have enough itemized deductions to make it worth itemizing instead of taking the standard deduction, you still are not benefiting.