Travel Expenses

Travel expenses are deductible business expenses incurred while traveling away from home for business reasons. Not all expenditures incurred while traveling can be declared as travel expenses. Travel expenses must be ordinary and necessary; they are accepted and common for a particular business, and are helpful in advancing business objectives. For example, the cost of gasoline or plane, train, or bus tickets, the cost of taxi fares from an airport to a hotel, or from a hotel to business meetings, meals, lodgings, and business-related phone calls all count as travel expenses. Lavish or extravagant spending and personal spending cannot be deducted as travel expenses. For example, a business traveler buying gold rings for coworkers as souvenirs, or toys for a child at home cannot claim those as travel expenses. Expenses incurred on a temporary work assignment count as travel expenses. However, expenses incurred on a work assignment lasting more than a year, or with no definite end, do not count as travel expenses. Business travelers can deduct travel expenses related to job hunting if they are looking for a new job in their present trade, but not if they are looking for a job in a new trade or looking for their first job. For employees, permitted travel expenses are reported on Form 2106 or Form 2106-EZ and Schedule A of Form 1040.