topic 2025 out of pocket work expenses as a w-2 employee in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

2025 out of pocket work expenses as a w-2 employee

25kona — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:45:32 GMT

I'm a W-2 employee and one of my vehicles is used primarily for work. I was happy to see that for my 2025 taxes, it appears that I can input work expenses such as meals, gas, oil, maintenance.

Am I understanding this correctly? I though in past years that w-2 could not deduct work expenses that were out of pocket.

If this is a valid deduction for me as a w-2 employee, how would I identify maintennce, gas, and oil expenses for 2025? All of these would have been out of pocket.

Thanks!

Re: 2025 out of pocket work expenses as a w-2 employee

xmasbaby0 — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:49:57 GMT

Not sure what is making you think you can enter those job-related expenses on a 2025 federal tax return; the law did not change pertaining to W-2 employees deducting job-related expenses on a federal return.

W-2 employees cannot deduct job-related expenses on a federal return. Job-related expenses were eliminated as a federal deduction for W-2 employees by the tax laws that changed for 2018 and beyond. Your state tax laws might be different in AL, AR, CA, HI, MN, NY or PA.

If you are preparing a return for a state that lets you deduct job-related expenses, the information will flow from your federal return to the state return, so enter it in Federal>Deductions and Credits>Employment Expenses>Job-Related Expenses

Re: 2025 out of pocket work expenses as a w-2 employee

DoninGA — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:50:42 GMT

That is not correct. Employee business expenses are not deductible on a federal tax return due to the tax code changes in effect for tax years 2018 thru 2025.

Re: 2025 out of pocket work expenses as a w-2 employee

25kona — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 19:45:25 GMT

I asked the question because TurboTax Premier does not notify the W-2 employee that work expenses cannot be entered. In fact, the software actually asks the user if there are any employment expenses for w-2 work, since the w-2 was inputted prior in the software. That's why I was led to think that work expenses were allowable for w-2 employees.

TurboTax should hide or eliminate that as an editable section so that its readily obvious.

Re: 2025 out of pocket work expenses as a w-2 employee

xmasbaby0 — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 19:53:39 GMT

There are a few exceptions for the "job-related" expense deduction for W-2 employees.

Armed forces reservists

qualified performing artists

fee- basis state or local government officials

disabled and impairment related expenses

And as already noted, since information flows from the federal return to the state return, you can enter your job-related expense if you are going prepare a state return that allows W-2 expenses.