My employer reimbursed me for airfare, hotel and rental expenses on a business trip but included them in wages. Is this allowed?

[Vic1225]

Last year I made several business trips as part of a consulting job.  When I submitted receipts for airfare, hotel, car rental they always reimbursed me.  One particular trip I booked my arrangements through a website (like Expedia) and the only receipt I received was a total for air and hotel.  The company stated they (their company rules not the government) had to have a separate receipt for each type of expense.  I tried to get separate receipts from the website but it was a special deal for booking both at the same time.  My company did reimburse me but they included that amount as wages on my W-2, just for that one trip.  Is there any way to get this adjusted as just travel expenses and not wages?  They refuse to not classify it as wages because it's how they do things!

[Carl]

It *is* wages. But since the expenses were job related, you can claim them. You'll do that under the Deductions & Credits tab in the Job Related Expenses section, when you get to it.

[macuser_22]

Also see IRS topic 514.
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc514.html">https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc514.html</a>
And
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/publications/p463/ch06.html#en_US_2015_publink100034110">https://www.irs.gov/pub...>

[Vic1225]

Thanks I'll take a look at this.  It was confusing as all the other travel I was reimbursed for did not show up as wages.  I just got my money back.  Only this one time because they didn't like that I couldn't provide separate receipts did they decide to include it as wages.

[Carl]

The employer does is this way, because that's how the business deducts your travel expenses from the taxable business income. So you have to claim it as the taxable income it is to you. But you offset the taxability of it by claiming your job related expenses in the deduction section for that.
You are allowed to claim those expenses, because they were "a requirement of employment, or continued employment".

[macuser_22]

As Pub 463 says "You must adequately account to your employer for these expenses within a reasonable period of time",  it depends on the employers rules as to what is adequate - eventually  your receipts did not meet their requirements.

The problem with that is it is an itemized deduction first reduced by 2% of AGI which probably makes it not deductible for most people.

[Vic1225]

Yes, I'm afraid the 2% is going to make it so I get nothing back.  I was able to get the cost of the airfare and hotel broken out but it didn't include the taxes so apparently that wasn't adequate for the employer.