Are business travel expenses tax deductible?
Yes, when the trip takes you away from home overnight mainly for the business: the fare, the hotel, rides and bags in full, and meals at half.
The rule
Travel is deductible when you are away from your tax home, the city where the business is, long enough to need sleep, and the trip is mainly for work. Flights, trains, the hotel, rides, baggage fees, laundry and calls all count, and meals count at 50%.
A trip in the US that is mainly business keeps the fare fully deductible even if you add a few personal days, but the hotel and meals on those days are yours. Mainly means more working days than personal ones.
Bringing a spouse or friend doesn’t make their share deductible unless they work for the business and come for it.
Two nights at a hotel for a conference, $618, is deductible in full.
Priced at 36¢ on the dollar, the rate of a $95,000 sole proprietor in California. Work out yours.
- Where it goes
- Schedule C line 24a, travel, and 24b for meals
- What to keep
- Receipts for the fare and lodging, and a note of the business done each day.
- Watch for
- Trips abroad have tighter rules: if you are away more than a week and spend a quarter or more of it on personal days, the fare has to be split.
Checked on September 25, 2026 against Publication 463, Travel, Gift and Car Expenses. An estimate for your records, not tax advice.
By the kind of work
What else each of these can deduct, and what they tend to miss.
See it on every receipt.
Snap it and Reimburse files it on the right Schedule C line, takes the deductible share and shows what it puts back.