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Here's a list of some deductible away-from-home travel
expenses:
 Meals and lodging while traveling or once you get to your
away-from-home business destination.
The cost of having your clothes cleaned and pressed away from
home.
Costs for telephone, fax or modem usage.
Costs for secretarial services away-from-home.
The costs of transportation between job sites or to and from
hotels and terminals.
Airfare, bus fare, rail fare, and charges related to shipping
baggage or taking it with you.
The cost of bringing or sending samples or displays, and of
renting sample display rooms.
The costs of keeping and operating a car, including garaging
costs.
The cost of keeping and operating an airplane, including hangar
costs.
Transportation costs between "temporary" job sites and hotels and
restaurants.
Incidentals, including computer rentals, stenographers' fees.
Don’t overpay your income taxes by overlooking expenses which you
are entitled to deduct. Use these financial tips to ensure you are
handling your business travel and entertainment costs in a
tax-wise manner.
Travel Expenses
The tax law allows you to deduct two types of travel expenses
related to your business.
First, you can deduct local transportation expenses incurred for
business purposes—the expense of getting from one location to
another, but not meals or incidentals.
Second, you can deduct away from home travel expenses—including
meals and incidentals. Deduction limits can be eased if your
employer reimburses your travel expenses.
Local Transportation Costs
You can deduct the cost of local business transportation. This
includes airfare, rail fare, and bus fare, as well as the costs of
using and maintaining a business automobile. For those whose main
place of business is their personal residence, business trips from
that residence, and return trips, are deductible transportation
and not non-deductible commuting.
You generally cannot deduct lodging and meals unless you stay away
overnight. Meals may be partially deductible as an entertainment
expense, as discussed below.
Away From-Home Travel Expenses
You can deduct one-half of the cost of meals and all of the
expenses of lodging incurred while traveling away from home.
To be deductible, travel expenses must be "ordinary and
necessary"—though "necessary" is liberally defined as "helpful and
appropriate", not "indispensable". Deduction is also denied for
that part of any travel expense that is "lavish or extravagant",
though this rule does not bar deducting the cost of first class
travel, or deluxe accommodations or (subject to percentage
limitations below) deluxe meals.
What does "away from home" mean? To deduct the costs of lodging
and meals (and incidentals—see below) you must generally stay
somewhere overnight. Otherwise, your costs are considered local
transportation costs, and the costs of lodging and meals are not
deductible.
Where is your "home" for tax purposes? The general view is that
your "home" for travel expense purposes is your place of business
or your post of duty. It is not where your family lives. (Some
courts say it's the general area of your residence).
There are some tricky rules in the tax law concerning where a
taxpayer’s "home" is for purposes of deducting travel expenses.
They come up whenever a taxpayer works at a temporary site, or
works in two different places.
Click HERE for Limits & Restrictions on
Entertainment Expenses
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