Does this seem fair? At all?

[jon@af]

So, for my job, I have to drive to various locations throughout the area, often times in the evening after I have left the office, which closes at 4 p.m.

Fortunately, my company offers mileage, so I've been submitting the miles I've driven from my home to events to cover (I edit a local newspaper) so that I may be compensated for the gas I've used.

Most of the time, these trips are around 25 miles total. However, depending on the month, I can rack up around 300 miles of driving to and from events.

Well, I received an email earlier this week asking why my mileage is so high. I explained that, since I live out of the town I cover, I have to drive to the events from my home, which makes more sense to me than sitting in my office for 3 hours after work waiting for a meeting or basketball game - time that I generally use to spend time with my wife, have dinner and take care of things at home.

Just today, I received a response back from my boss, stating the following:

Originally Posted by Jon's Boss

Jon, It's your choice you live where you live. You cannot charge for
mileage from home - only mileage from the office. If you have an evening
meeting, either stick around for it and work in the office until the
meeting starts, go to dinner, or you can go home and come back, but you
can only charge from the office to the meeting and back.

Am I just an asshole thinking I should be paid for the mileage I incur when driving to a 3-hour village board meeting at 7 p.m.?

I was just starting to like my job again and then I get this. Fantastic.

[ericn1300]

They are correct, but they probably weren't paying much anyway. The IRS deduction for 2010 is 50 cents per mile, be sure to file for the deduction by subtracting the amount they pay from that and the full amount for any un-reimbused business mileage, but the IRS does not allow you to deduct you commuting mileage.

[fredjacksonsan]

Yeah it sucks, but if you look at it from their point of view, if your office is 3 miles from the event you're covering, and your house is 30 miles away, they're only liable for the 6 miles to and from the event from the office, not the 60+ miles for you to go home and back. It sucks, but imagine the abuses if someone had a second home 150 miles from the office and used that one as their mileage base....

[BleedDodge]

I kind of see the boss' perspective of this. They're not going to pay you to drive to work, right? That's the way I see it too. They'll pay you while you're at work, but not to drive to there.

Kind of like when I go to work. The shop where the semi is is an hour away from my house. If I told my boss I wanted to be paid to drive my half ton to the shop, he'd laugh at me. I'll get paid every mile I drive on the big truck tho. He's not going to pay me to put on my pants right. Know what I mean?

[fredjacksonsan]

BleedDodge? Wow, what a blast from the past! Nice to see you back, man.

[BleedDodge]

Hey dude.