Drive From Home To Work

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, only 1/5 of adults in the United States worked from home. That number has since jumped to nigh 3/4, with over 1/2 of them stating they would adopt to keep working from home after the pandemic ends (Pew Enquiry Center).

With major companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon permanently overhauling their piece of work-from-home policies, it's probable that workplace culture is going to take a dramatic shift, one that will final well beyond this current coronavirus outbreak. Merely if those employees working from abode demand to travel to a customer from their firm, how will mileage reimbursement work for them?

Mileage Reimbursement Rules

When an employee drives from their (non-home) part to carry business organization, the rules are clear – this is considered deductible mileage co-ordinate to the IRS. Personal commuting expenses, on the other hand, cannot be deducted, period.

For instance, if you are driving from your firm to work in the morning (or vice versa in the evening), y'all can't deduct that mileage. Personal commuting expenses also refer to taxis, Ubers, busses, subways, etc.

Pre-COVID, fifty-fifty if employees traveled directly from their personal residence to a piece of work-related appointment (a customer meeting, plumbing work, etc.), this would exist considered a commute, and thus not be reimbursable.

Mileage Reimbursement Working From Home

With that said, the line gets fuzzy when your business firm is now the location of your office. Let's say your squad has all started working from home with no intention of returning to the sometime ways of function work and yous are told to meet a client on the other side of town.

Would the drive y'all took to go there count as a commute, every bit you're driving from your firm to where y'all are going to work? Or would information technology count equally business organization, since y'all're going from your identify of work to go carry business?

triplog deduct drive from home office to client work meeting

Yous Tin can Deduct A Drive From Your Firm, If…

All that needs to be made clear – and well-documented – is the fact that the employee's dwelling office counts as an official office location for the company. When that is established, the drive between the home office and, say, a client can thus be deductible.

It would exist adept to review your state or municipality's local regulations too. For example, the Land of Washington has very specific requirements on how mileage reimbursement works when employees travel from their habitation office to comport business organization.

At Domicile Expense Reimbursement

What about expenses other than mileage? Say an employee needs two monitors and was provided such at the office, simply their home isn't as well-equipped for function piece of work. While companies aren't technically required to reimburse employees for purchases made that will affect their business, there are certain restrictions.

According to the Off-white Labor Standards Act, if accrued expenses related to business would cause an employee to earn a net less than minimum wage, the business organization volition demand to reimburse them, at least to the indicate where their internet earnings would exist at or above minimum wage.

If your at home employees earn or are close to the minimum wage, information technology is your company's responsibility to reimburse them. That includes when they apply their personal assets.

If they needed to buy a more expensive Wi-Fi plan or a more than ergonomic chair and those purchases could bring your team member down beneath minimum wage, your company is obligated to reimburse them.

How TripLog Can Help

TripLog's suite of tools are a powerful way for companies to track their team's company mileage and expense reimbursements. With accurate GPS-based tracking methods and six different autostart options, businesses take been able to streamline their approving process and cut down manual reporting time 10x.

To learn more, schedule a free web demo today, or bank check out our pricing folio to get started. You can also apply our mileage reimbursement calculator, and drivers can download TripLog on iOS or Android.