Independent Contractor Deductions

• As an independent contractor, your self-employment status allows you to deduct miles you drive for business purposes from your federal tax return. If you're working for a private school as an independent contractor, you may deduct miles you drive in connection with your business arrangement. The IRS allows you to use either the Standard Mileage Rate or your actual expenses for business travel. According to the IRS, you must use the Standard Mileage Rate -- $0.51 per mile driven -- during the first year you work as an independent contractor. After that year, you may use your actual expenses.
  
  

School Speaking Engagements

• A private university or college may require a professor to perform speaking engagements and conduct panel lectures at various conferences around the state or the country as a condition of maintaining satisfactory academic or publishing progress. As a professor, you should be able to deduct the mileage you drive in connection to these required speaking engagements. You may use this deduction because the IRS doesn't consider the mileage as you driving to and from work.
  
  

Using Actual Expenses

• Using actual travel expenses for the IRS business travel deduction will require you to keep detailed records of your business trips. You should keep a travel log in your car so you can identify the days you travel for business purposes -- other than simply driving to work -- and include the details of why you traveled to the particular location, miles driven and cost. Keep all your fuel receipts and any receipts for road tolls you incur. You may need to submit all this documentation to the IRS to prove your deduction at the end of the year.
  
  

Education For Business

• Attending a private school to satisfy your employer's continuing education requirements can net you a miscellaneous tax deduction only if you itemize all your tax deductions. Even after the meticulous process of gathering all your receipts and financial statements, you can only recoup the cost of education related expenses, including travel costs, for business purposes if the total for all your miscellaneous deductions exceeds 2 percent of your adjusted gross income for the year.
  
  

Employer Reimbursed Costs

• The university or private school employing you may offer to reimburse you for travel costs you incur while on speaking engagements or panel lectures. If you allow the school to reimburse you for your expenses you cannot claim a business travel deduction on your federal tax return. You must decide whether it's better to pay for your business travel out of your own pocket and earn the deduction, or take the money upfront and pay a possibly higher tax rate.