Can an Employee Deduct Travel Expenses for Work?

In most cases, an employee cannot deduct travel expenses for work on a federal tax return. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the unreimbursed employee expense deduction starting in 2018, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made that change permanent beginning in 2026.¹ Four narrow categories of employees still qualify, and the practical route for everyone else is getting reimbursed by the employer under the right kind of plan.

Why the Deduction Is Gone for Most Employees

Before 2018, employees could deduct unreimbursed work expenses as miscellaneous itemized deductions when they exceeded 2% of adjusted gross income. The TCJA wiped out that whole category.² The original sunset was December 31, 2025, which would have brought the deduction back. Congress instead made the elimination permanent, so a regular W-2 employee should not expect to write off airfare, hotels, rental cars, meals, or mileage tied to work trips.¹

Two boundary points worth flagging. If you receive a 1099 rather than a W-2, you are not an employee for this purpose, and you deduct legitimate business travel on Schedule C.³ And several states never adopted the TCJA change: they still let employees deduct unreimbursed work travel on the state return, sometimes subject to a 2% AGI floor. Check your state’s instructions, because your state taxable income can end up noticeably lower than your federal number.

The Four Employee Groups Who Can Still Deduct

Four categories of employees kept the deduction. All four use Form 2106, and three of them get the benefit as an above-the-line adjustment on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 12, meaning you don’t have to itemize. The fourth reports on Schedule A.⁴

Armed Forces Reservists

Reservists can deduct travel for reserve duty more than 100 miles from home. The deduction is capped at the federal per diem rate for lodging and meals plus the standard mileage rate for driving, along with parking, ferry fees, and tolls.⁵

Qualified Performing Artists

The eligibility rules here are narrow enough that most working performers are locked out. You must have worked for at least two employers in the performing arts during the year, earned at least $200 from each, had business expenses exceeding 10% of your gross performing-arts income, and had adjusted gross income of $16,000 or less before the deduction. Married filers must file jointly unless they lived apart from a spouse all year.⁶ The $16,000 ceiling has never been adjusted for inflation.

Fee-Basis State or Local Government Officials

Officials compensated partly or entirely through fees rather than a salary can deduct expenses tied to that job.⁴

Employees With Impairment-Related Work Expenses

Costs for attendant care or workplace accommodations that let an employee perform the job remain deductible. Unlike the other three groups, these expenses go on Schedule A (Form 1040), line 16, so you have to itemize to claim them.⁶

The Practical Path for Everyone Else: Employer Reimbursement

Because the deduction is off the table for most employees, the tax code pushes the cost onto the employer through reimbursement. Whether that money is tax-free to you depends entirely on how the plan is structured, and this is where employees get surprised at tax time.

Accountable Plans

Under an accountable plan, reimbursement is tax-free. The money doesn’t show up as wages on your W-2, and neither side owes payroll tax on it. Three requirements have to be met: the expense must connect to your work, you must substantiate it to your employer within 60 days, and you must return any excess reimbursement within 120 days.³ Meet all three and the reimbursement is invisible on your return.

Nonaccountable Plans

If the arrangement fails any of those three requirements, every dollar the employer pays counts as taxable wages. The full amount lands in Box 1 of your W-2 and is subject to income tax withholding and payroll taxes.⁷ A flat travel stipend paid without any requirement to submit receipts is the classic example. You would owe tax on the whole allowance even if you spent every penny of it on legitimate work travel. If your employer describes the money vaguely, ask whether the company requires expense reports and proof of business purpose. That answer tells you which side of the line you’re on.

What Counts as Business Travel If You Are Eligible

For eligible taxpayers, a trip has to take you away from your “tax home” long enough that you need sleep or rest. A same-day round trip across town doesn’t qualify. Your tax home is the city or area where your main place of business sits, which isn’t necessarily where your family lives.³ Napping at a rest stop doesn’t count, but you don’t have to be gone overnight either.⁸

Commuting from home to a regular workplace is never deductible, no matter the distance. The one meaningful exception: if you have a regular work location and also travel to a temporary work site, the trip to the temporary site is deductible.³

A “temporary” assignment is one realistically expected to last a year or less when it starts. If it’s expected to run longer, the IRS treats it as indefinite and the travel isn’t deductible, even if the job actually wraps up earlier. An initially temporary posting can flip to indefinite midstream, and a string of short assignments to the same location that together stretch past a year can be treated the same way.³

What You Can Deduct and the 2026 Rates

Deductible costs include airfare, train or bus tickets, rental cars, and rideshares between the airport and your hotel or work site. Lodging is fully deductible as long as it isn’t lavish. Meals during business travel are deductible at 50% of actual cost or 50% of the federal per diem meal allowance for the destination.³

The 2026 standard mileage rate for business driving is 72.5 cents per mile, up from 70 cents in 2025. That covers fuel, maintenance, insurance, and depreciation. Parking and tolls come on top. If you own the vehicle, you have to choose the standard mileage rate in the first year the car is available for business use. For a leased vehicle, the mileage rate has to stay in place for the entire lease, including any renewals.⁹

Records You Need to Keep

Keep a log written at or near the time of each expense. Record the date, destination, business purpose, and amount for every trip. Receipts are required for all lodging regardless of amount, and for other travel costs when the charge hits $75 or more.³ Digital copies are fine if they’re legible. Track business miles separately from commuting and personal miles, because Form 2106 asks for both totals.⁶ Hold the records at least three years from the date you file the return claiming the deduction.

How to Report It

Fill out Form 2106 with your total expenses, any accountable-plan reimbursements received, and the net unreimbursed amount. Reservists, performing artists, and fee-basis officials carry that amount to Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 12, and attach Form 2106. Employees claiming impairment-related expenses put the amount on Schedule A (Form 1040), line 16 instead.⁴ The Schedule 1 route reduces adjusted gross income directly and works whether you itemize or take the standard deduction.

1
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026, Including Amendments From the One Big Beautiful Bill
2
Cornell Law School. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
3
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
4
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2106
5
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 3, Armed Forces Tax Guide
6
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2106
7
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.62-2 Reimbursements and Other Expense Allowance Arrangements
8
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 511, Business Travel Expenses
9
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Sets 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate at 72.5 Cents per Mile, Up 2.5 Cents