____ If you used the standard rate in figuring your car expenses for business purposes, depreciation and out-of-pocket expenses for this travel were not deducted.
____ You figured your allowable deduction for car expenses for business purposes at the standard rate of 30 cents for all business miles. (45 cents a mile for U.S.Postal employees with rural routes).
____ Your allowable car expense deduction was limited to the total expense times the percentage of the total miles driven for business purposes.
____ You did not deduct travel expenses incurred in a location where you were working for an indefinite period since that location is considered your tax home. (Your tax home is your regular or principal place of business, employment or post of duty, regardless of where you maintain your family residence.)
____ If the travel expenses you claimed were incurred on interim trips home while on temporary assignment, the amounts you spent in excess of what you would have paid for room and board at your temporary assignment are personal expenses and, therefore not deducted.
____ The cost of traveling to and from your principal place of employment was not deducted.
____ The cost of commuting between your residence and a regular place of employment (one or more) within the general area of your tax home was not deducted.
____ You did not deduct the cost of meals or lodging if you were not away from your principal place of employment overnight or long enough to require you to stop for sleep or rest to properly perform your duties.
____ Travel expenses incurred while you were not away from your tax home were not deducted.
____ If you failed to claim from your employer a reimbursement to which you are entitled for travel and transportation expense, you did not claim a deduction for these expenses.
____ No deduction is allowed for any expenditure for business travel away from home (including meals and lodging) unless you keep adequate records and documentary evidence to substantiate this expense. To meet the records requirement, you can show that you have maintained the following:
(1) An account book, diary or statement of expense, with entries made at or near the time of each necessary business expense. You must show the amount spent, the time and place of travel and the purpose of the business.
(2) Available documentary evidence that will identify the expense such as receipts, paid bills or canceled checks.
Estimates do not qualify as substantiation of these expenses.
____ Although "home" ordinarily means the place where you and your family live, your tax home is the entire city or general area in which your principal place of business, employment station or post of duty is located. If your expenses were incurred at your tax home, they were not deducted as away-from-home expenses.
____ The cost of your meals while not away from your principal place of employment overnight on business travel was a personal expense regardless of the hours or other inconvenience. Therefore, the expense for such meals was not deducted.
____ If you moved from job to job, maintaining no fixed place of abode or business locality, each place where you worked became your principal place of business and your tax home. Therefore, you did not deduct your expenses for travel, meals and lodging.
____ If your job at the new location was expected to last for an indefinite period (that is, if its end could not be foreseen within a fixed and reasonably short period, generally one year or less), that location then became your new tax home. Therefore, you did not deduct the expenses of travel, meals and lodging while there and any reimbursement or per diem you received was included in income.
____ A deduction for travel and transportation is allowable only for your own expenses. The part of the expense allocable to other members of your family was not deducted.
____ Since you did not account to your employer for your business expenses, your employer's reimbursements have been included in your income and you are able to verify expenses for meals, lodging and other business items that you deducted.
____ You can show that your expense deductions for attending a convention benefited or advanced the interests of your own work or business as distinguished from the business or work of another.
____ If you did not keep records of actual meal expenses, you used the standard meal allowance of $26 a day for meals and incidental expenses. ( For certain designated high cost areas listed in IRS Publication 463, higher standard meal allowances of $30, $34 or $38 are permitted.)
____ If you are not reimbursed by your employer or you are reimbursed under a nonaccountability plan, you deducted only 50% of the standard meal allowance or 50% of the amount of your meals that exceeded your reimbursement for meals. (You are also subject to the 2% of adjusted gross income limit that applies to most miscellaneous deductions.)
© 1986, 1998 to 2002, Jack Warren Wade, Jr.
