Miileage reimbursement question

[Sarah428]

When DH accepted his job last month he was hired in at location A and was told that he may have to travel to location B (30 miles further than his main office at location A)once a week for 6-12 months until the transition in complete.

He actually has been driving to location B 3-4 days a week. Should he be getting mileage reimbursement for this since they don't provide a company car?

And I mean mileage from location A to location B, not mileage from home to location B.

TIA!
SC

[RiverFarm]

Yes, he should be getting mileage reimbursement. I would assume that it's company policy. But jobs being what they are these days I'd probably ask in a fairly neutral manner of someone on payroll or in Human Resources whether mileage reimbursement is routinely provided. With all the cost-cutting and in the current economy, that may have gone the way of the free lunch.

[barbse]

If it's not reimbursed, keep track of the mileage (point A to B & return) & you can deduct it as a business expense on your taxes.

[funniegrrl]

I don't think there's a "should," and I don't know that it would be tax deductible. For the transition period, location B is his workplace, so he's still simply commuting. The fact that it's further from your home than location A isn't relevant. The company might be willing to pay the mileage difference, but IMHO that would be a choice they make, not a requirement. It wouldn't hurt for him to ask, but I wouldn't be surprised if they said, "No."

[blazedog]

As others have posted there is no "should" in terms of company reimbursement.

Generally companies do reimburse for travel that occurs from an employee's home office during the course of business -- i.e if one has to take a meeting at another office. However, as others have advised I would be hesitant to push for reimbursement since often what someone is *told* during the interview process doesn't comport exactly with what actually happens. In his circumstances, I might ask a co-worker in passing as part of a general conversation on the corporate "culture".

It's not clear whether the job location is fixed at Location A and sometimes he must go to Location B after he has arrived at Location B. I believe that it makes a difference in terms of tax consequences since one is just a long commute and the other is an non-reimbursed business expense.

[Peweh]

I would check with the company, if they do reimburse mileage then by all means transit from location A to B would be reimbursable. It's when he went from home to B instead of A, where they'd probably require you to deduct what the normal mileage from home to A was. Even if they don't reimburse, you should keep track of it for tax purposes as you will probably get some credit for it. Hope that helped!

[aggie94]

That's completely up to the company as to whether they choose to pay mileage or not. There is no federal (and I would guess probably no state) law that requires companies to reimburse mileage. If the company doesn't reimburse mileage, he should be tracking it so you can at least claim it as a non-reimbursable business expense on your taxes.