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Figure B. When Are Transportation Expenses Deductible? Most employees and self-employed persons can use this chart. (Do not use this chart if your home is your principal place of business. See Office in the home.) . ",. ",'" -'~fN.;'\\P~ "(!<# ."!J>$J"o.... ~~ o#~,;J.o:s-'tj <:f ,"',; ~ :JI Temporary work location '" :~~ys ~ctibl. Never deductible ~ ~ lJ3o_~ .h ~",'I:j';;bor Always deductible .~ Home :JI Second job Home: The place where you reside. Transportation expenses between your home and your main or regular place of work are personal commuting expenses. Regular or main job: Your principal place of business. If you have more than one job, you must determine which one is your regular or main job. Consider the time you spend at each, the activity you ha\le at each, and the income you earn at each. Temporary work location: A place where your work assignment is realistically expected to last (and does in fact last) one year or less. Unless you have a regular place of business, you can only deduct your transportation expenses to a temporary work location ~ your metropolitan area. Second job: If you regularly work at two or more places in one day, whether or not for the same employer, you can deduct your transportation expenses of getting from one workplace to another. You cannot deduct your transportation costs between your home and a second jab on a day off from your main job. . Getting from your home to a temporary workplace when you have one or more regular places of work. These temporary workplaces can be either within the area of your tax home or outside that area. Transportation expenses do not include ex- penses you have while traveling away from home overnight. Those expenses are travel ex~ penses which are discussed in chapter 1. How~ ever, if you use your car while traveling away from home overnight, use the rules in this chap- ter to figure your car expense deduction. See Car Expenses, later. 4. Transportation This chapter discusses expenses you can de- duct for business transportation when you are not traveling away from home as defined in chapter 1. These expenses include the cost of transportation by air, rail. bus, taxi, etc., and the cost of driving and maintaining your car. Transportation expenses include the ordi- nary and necessary costs of all of the following. . Getting from one workplace to another in the course of your business or profession when you are traveling within the city or general area that is your tax home. Tax home is defined in chapter 1. . Visiting clients or customers. . Going to a business meeting away from your regular workplace. Illustration of transportation expenses. Fig- ure B illustrates the rules that apply for deduct- ing transportation expenses when you have a regular or main job away from your home. You may want to refer to it when deciding whether you can deduct your transportation expenses. Temporary work location. Jfyou have one or more regular work locations away from your home and you commute to a temporary work location in the same trade or business, you can deduct the expenses of the daily round-trip Page 14 Chapter 4 Transportation transportation between your home and the tem- porary location, regardless of distance. If your employment at a work location is realisticaUy expected to last (and does in fact last) for 1 year or less, the employment is tempo- rary unless there are facts and circumstances that would indicate otherwise. If your employment at a work location is realistically expected to last for more than 1 year or if there is no realistic expectation that the employment will last for 1 year or less, the em- ployment is not temporary, regardless of whether it actually lasts for more than 1 year. If employment at a work location initially is realisti- cally expected to last for 1 year or less, but at some later date the employment is realistically expected to last more than 1 year, that employ- ment will be treated as temporary (unless there are facts and circumstances that would indicate otherwise) until your expectation changes. It will not be treated as temporary after the date you determine it will last more than 1 year. If the temporary work location !s beyond the general area of your regular place of work and you stay overnight, you are traveling away from home. You may have deductible travel ex- penses a5 discussed in chapter 1. No regular place of work. If you have no regular place of wort< but ordinarily work. in the metropolitan area where you live, you can de- duct daily transportation costs between home and a temporary work site outside that metro- politan area. Generally, a metropolitan area includes the area within the city limits and the suburbs that are considered part of that metropolitan area. You cannot deduct daily transportation costs between your home and temporary work sites within your metropolitan area. These are non- deductible commuting expenses. Two places of work. tfyou work at two places in one day, whether or not for the same em- ployer, you can deduct the expense of getting from one workplace to the other. However, iffor some personal reason you do not go directly from one location to the other, you cannot de- duct more than the amount it would have cost you to go directly from the first location to the second. Transportation expenses you have in going between home and a part-time job on a day off from your main job are commuting expenses. You cannot deduct them. Armed Forces reservists. A meeting of an Armed Forces reserve unit is a second place of business if the meeting is held on a day on which you work at your regular job. You can deduct the expense of getting from one workplace to the other as just discussed under TWD places of work. You usually cannot deduct the expense if the reserve meeting is held on a day on which you do not work at your regular job. In this case, your transportation generally is a nondeductible com- muting expense. However, you can deduct your transportation expenses if the location of the meeting is temporary and you have one or more regular places of work. If you ordinarily work in a particular metropol~ itan area but not at any specific location and the reserve meeting is held at a temporary location outside that metropolitan area, you can deduct your transportation expenses. If you travel away from home overnight to attend a guard or reserve meeting, you can