Deducting Travel Expenses
In general, personal expenditures such as food and lodging are not
tax deductible. However, a taxpayer may deduct these costs while he
or she is away from home overnight for business purposes. Instead
of deducting actual expenditures, taxpayers can use the per diem amounts
for food and lodging in revenue procedure 93-50. The applicability
of this revenue procedure to self-employed individuals recently came
before the courts.
Paul Duncan was an independent over-the-road truck driver who lived
in Tazewell, Tennessee. He contracted all his cargo-hauling assignments
from Knox Cartage in Knoxville. In 1994 he traveled 130,000 miles.
On his 1994 tax return, he deducted food and lodging expenses for
away from-home travel based on the per diem amounts in revenue procedure
93-50. He also deducted the cost of meals for days he stayed in Knoxville
to obtain a cargo. The IRS denied the deductions.
Result: For the IRS. IRC section 162(a)(2)
permits taxpayers a deduction for travel expenses such as food and
lodging when they are away from home overnight. Section 274(d) limits
the deduction to amounts for which a taxpayer has the necessary substantiation.
Therefore, a taxpayer may not rely on the "Cohan rule,"
which allows him or her to estimate expenditures. While taxpayers
can use the per diem amounts found in revenue procedure 93-50 to ease
their administrative burden, they must otherwise comply with all of
the code's substantiation requirements.
The revenue procedure limits the use of per diem amounts for lodging
to cases where an employer reimburses an employee with a fixed daily
amount. That means self-employed individuals may not use this method
for lodging expenditures. Instead, they must prove actual expenses
based on the rules of section 274(d). Duncan could not deduct any
lodging expenditures because he did not have the required proof. Self-employed
individuals may use the per diem amounts for meals since the revenue
procedure specifically authorizes them to do so. In this case Duncan
was allowed to deduct such per diem amounts.
Duncan deducted meals in Knoxville on days he stayed over to obtain
a cargo the next day. The law requires truckers to rest 8 hours in
a 24-hour period. Duncan argued he needed to stay in Knoxville to
meet this requirement and to obtain a cargo. Had he taken the time
to drive to his house, he would not have been able to leave as early
the next morning and the cargo would have gone to another trucker.
The Tax Court rejected Duncan's "need to rest" argument.
For tax purposes, your home is where your principal business takes
place, not your residence. In this case Knoxville, not Tazewell, Duncan's
home. Since he was not away from home, he could not deduct the cost
of meals while he was in Knoxville.
Self-employed individuals must carefully substantiate all out-of-town
travel expenses. They may use the listed per diem amounts only for
food. Lodging deductions must be for the actual amount spent. Failure
to comply will result in a complete denial of the deduction.
Paul H. Duncan, TC Memo 2000-269. Prepared by
Edward J. Schnee, CPA, PhD, Joe Lane Professor of Accounting and director,MTA
program, Culverhouse SchoolofAccounttancy, University of Alabama Tuscaloosa.
