If I'm driving home from work, and make business detours along the way, can I write off the whole trip?

Question

I have a home business and am writing off mileage for tax purposes. I commute to my day job. On my way home today, I'll be making two stops (out of the way of my normal commute) before I get home.

Should I log mileage and write off the whole trip?

Or should I log mileage, but subtract the amount of my normal commute (since I'd be driving home whether I had to make these stops or not)?

SHAMELESS PLUG: My home business is an online video game eBay store at http://www.yourgamestore.net

Answer 1

You can just deduct the extra miles due to the business detours.

Answer 2

I would determine how many miles you would drive to make these deliveries from your home.  If the one way commute from day job to the deliveries to home is less than the round trip from home to delivery to home again, log the mileage and write off the trip.  If the round trip is less, then I would calculate just the actual additional delivery mileage (as far as erring on the cautious side, I would just write off the additional mileage either way).

Answer 3

You may want to post this in the tax section.