Army Reserve here, Issue with Form 2106 deducting my travel expenses

[Sparky63]

I am trying to figure out why Turbo tax will not allow me to deduct some of my travel expenses for the Army Reserve. I travel over 500 miles to my reserve unit. There is a fund that we use to reimburse soldiers for travel expenses, however they are limited to $500 per Reserve Drill (Battle Assembly or BA), and also that fund ran dry in July of last year for my unit. That means I have quite a bit of money that I spent out of my pocket to attend drills, were talking about Airfare, Hotels, Rental Cars, ect..

Counting both the months that I exceeded the reimbursable amount, and the months where no reimbursement was available this totals over $4,000 for 2021.

I have done some rather extensive research on this and per the IRS form 2106 and the instructions for 2106 these expenses should 100% be deductible. The instructions do limit the amount of meals, and lodging to the GSA published Per Diem rate but do not say anything about not being able to deduct airfare and other expenses, it tells you to complete form 2106 (airfare being deductible on line 3).

However in turbo tax there is no way for me to fill in a total for line 3 on form 2106. Nor, apparently is there a way on the online version for me manually fill out that form. Please help.

See Images here detailing the issue, I have included pictures of the instructions for 2106, form 210...

[BillM223]

First, let me say that form 2106 is not scheduled to be made available until 2/3/2021. Thus, results are unpredictable right now because the necessary changes in the form and software and the associated testing have not been made yet. Please follow this link to see the Availability of the form.

I just did a test using the current Online system, and after answering all the questions for a reservist's expenses, the amount I was allowed appeared on line 12 on Schedule 1 (1040) as an adjustment (i.e., subtraction) to gross income.

So I would encourage you to go through the interview in TurboTax again to make sure that you answered all the questions, specifically that you are an Army Reservist. Under Deductions & Credits, click on "Job Expenses for W-2 Income" and proceed through the interview. Tell us what happens when you do that.

I see that the interview assumes that all travel is by car; let's see if the updated interview on or about 2/3/2021 changes that. For the time being, you can put the airfare into parking and tolls. It will be line 2 instead of line 3on the 2106, but the final numbers should be the same.