Here's how it works:

Every day you get up and "go to work." But you don't get in car and drive to Office #1 right away. If you did that, even as a self-employed person, you would be racking up non-deductible commuting miles, just like employee.

Instead, you grab a cup of coffee and head to Office #2 first, which takes all of 30 seconds.

After working in Office #2 for awhile, then you hop in car and head to Office #1, where you work for bulk of day.

Then, when you're done at Office #1, you get back in car and go "home" -- except when you get inside your house, you don't head for living room, you go straight to Office #2, where you finish up your daily routine with a few final minutes of paperwork.

What have you just done?

You daily round-trip "commute" is now a business deduction, due to a simple tax loophole that says:

Any miles driven between two business locations are deductible business miles.

The fact that one of those two locations just happens to be your Home Office is fine and dandy with IRS.

By following this route each day, you can save hundreds, even thousands of dollars in taxes.

The proof is in pudding: Your round-trip "commute" is 20 miles per day. 20 miles X 5 days = 100 miles per week. 100 miles per week X 50 weeks = 5,000 miles per year. 5,000 business miles X .36 cents = $1,800 deduction

So, you just got yourself a nice $1,800 deduction -- a deduction that you've probably been entitled to for years but didn't know it.

$1,800 deduction X 32% income tax rate = $576 in actual tax savings (27% federal income tax + 5% state income tax)

Five-hundred and seventy-six bucks. . . every year. . .

. . . Hmm, mmm, good! Now that's a tasty little morsel!

I know, I know -- you've got better things to do with your time.

So here's an incentive to make it worth your time: If I offered you a little part-time job that paid about $140 per hour, would you be interested? I think so.

Well, that's how you should look at task of filing an amended tax return. Do math:

You discover $1,000 of unreported deductions on your return from Year 2000, 2001 or 2002. So you do research, prepare proper forms (or have your accountant do it), and send them off to IRS.

If you are in 35% tax bracket (say, 30% federal plus 5% state), you will get a $350 refund for your efforts. And even if it took you 2.5 hours of paperwork drudgery, Uncle Same just paid you a cool $140/hour. Not bad, eh?

To file an amended federal income tax return, here are links to necessary forms:

Form 1040X -- in pdf format: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040x.pdf

Form 1040X -- in "fill-in" pdf format: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-fill/f1040x.pdf

IRS instructions for Form 1040X: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040x.pdf

You should also file an amended state return (assuming your state has an income tax). For a link to a database of all state income tax forms, check out: http:/ axes.yahoo.com/stateforms.html

Don't forget: if you're able to find $1,000 worth of unreported deductions on one previously filed return (resulting in tax savings of $350), there's a good chance same situation exists for other 2 "open" years.

End result: $350 x 3 = $1,050 in total tax savings . . .

. . .Hmm, mmm, good! Now that's a tasty little morsel!