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Publication 463 2000 Tax Year

Chapter 1
Travel Expenses

This is archived information that pertains only to the 2000 Tax Year. If you
are looking for information for the current tax year, go to the Tax Prep Help Area.

If you temporarily travel away from your tax home, you can use this chapter to determine if you have deductible travel expenses. This chapter defines "tax home,""temporary assignment," and "travel expenses," including the "standard meal allowance." It also discusses the rules for travel inside and outside the United States, luxury water travel, and deductible convention expenses.

Travel expenses defined. For tax purposes, travel expenses are the ordinary and necessary expenses of traveling away from home for your business, profession, or job. However, you cannot deduct expenses that are lavish or extravagant. See, later, What Travel Expenses Are Deductible?

You will find examples of deductible travel expenses in Table 1, later.

Traveling away from home. You are traveling away from home if:

  1. Your duties require you to be away from the general area of your tax home (defined later) substantially longer than an ordinary day's work, and
  2. You need to get sleep or rest to meet the demands of your work while away from home.

This rest requirement is not satisfied by merely napping in your car. You do not have to be away from your tax home for a whole day or from dusk to dawn as long as your relief from duty is long enough to get necessary sleep or rest.

Example 1. You are a railroad conductor. You leave your home terminal on a regularly scheduled round-trip run between two cities and return home 16 hours later. During the run, you have 6 hours off at your turnaround point where you eat two meals and rent a hotel room to get necessary sleep before starting the return trip. You are considered to be away from home, and you can deduct travel expenses.

Example 2. You are a truck driver. You leave your terminal and return to it later the same day. You get an hour off at your turnaround point to eat. Because you are not off to get necessary sleep and the brief time off is not an adequate rest period, your trip is not considered as travel away from home. You cannot deduct travel expenses.

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What Travel Expenses Are Deductible?

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