This publication is for employers who pay a per diem allowance to employees for business travel away from home within the
continental United States (CONUS) (the 48 contiguous states), on or after October 1, 2007, and before January 1, 2010. It
gives the maximum per diem rate you can use without treating part of the per diem allowance as wages for tax purposes. For
a detailed discussion on the tax treatment of a per diem allowance, see chapter 11 of Publication 535, Business Expenses,
or Revenue Procedure 2008-59, 2008-41 I.R.B. You can find the revenue procedure in the weekly Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB)
on the Internet at www.irs.gov/irb.
Per diem rates on the Internet.
You will find links to per diem rates at
www.gsa.gov. Click on “
Per Diem Rates” for links to:
-
CONUS per diem rates,
-
Per diem rates for areas outside the continental United States (OCONUS), such as Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and U.S. possessions,
and
-
Foreign per diem rates.
Publication 1542 revisions.
Publication 1542 is only available on the Internet at
www.irs.gov. Print copies can no longer be ordered.
During the year, as changes to the federal per diem rates (updates) are announced by the General Services Administration
(GSA), we will incorporate the changes into Publication 1542. A “
What's Hot” article on the IRS website will alert you to which locations have updated rates. You will find the new rates in Table 4
of the revised publication. To reach the “
What's Hot” articles, go to
www.irs.gov/formspubs; click on
What's Hot in forms and publications; then click on the link provided under
Changes to Our Current Tax Products.
We will also incorporate mid-year changes to the high-low rates into Publication 1542. You will be alerted to these
changes by a “
What's Hot” article on the IRS website, and find the changes in Table 2 of the revised publication.
The annual changes, both federal per diem and high-low rates, will be incorporated into the publication as soon as
possible after being announced by GSA and the IRS. The annual issue of the publication should be available each year in mid-
to late-October.
Comments and suggestions.
We welcome your comments about this publication and your suggestions for future editions.
You can write to us at the following address:
Internal Revenue Service
Individual Forms and Publications Branch
SE:W:CAR:MP:T:I
1111 Constitution Ave. NW, IR-6526
Washington, DC 20224
We respond to many letters by telephone. Therefore, it would be helpful if you would include your daytime phone number,
including the area code, in your correspondence.
You can email us at
*[email protected]. (The asterisk must be included in the address.) Please put “
Publications Comment” on the subject line. Although we cannot respond individually to each email, we do appreciate your feedback and will consider
your comments as we revise our tax products.
Ordering forms and publications.
Visit
www.irs.gov/formspubs to download forms and publications, call 1-800-829-3676, or write to the address below and receive a response within 10 days
after your request is received.
Internal Revenue Service
1201 N. Mitsubishi Motorway
Bloomington, IL 61705-6613
Tax questions.
If you have a tax question, check the information available on
www.irs.gov or call 1-800-829-1040. We cannot answer tax questions sent to either of the above addresses.
