How do I deduct travel expenses over 100 miles for military reserves?

[crashlandin5]

I travel over 100 miles for reserves and need to account for it

[AnnS7 · Accepted solution]

You can deduct travel expenses, including meal expenses, for your reserve duties if you traveled   more than 100 miles   from your home to perform these duties.   These expenses are deductible whether or not you itemize deductions on your tax return.

Deductible travel expenses include:

•  Airline, train, or bus tickets
• Automobile mileage
• Hotel or Motel expenses
• Meals and incidental expense (M&IE)

The standard meal allowance.   The standard meal allowance is the federal M&IE rate. For travel in 2016, the rate for most small localities in the United States is $51 a day. Most major cities and many other localities qualify for higher rates. You can find this information at www.gsa.gov/perdiem.

On the first and last travel day, Federal employees are only eligible for 75 percent of the total M&IE rate for their temporary duty travel location (not the official duty station location).  

You receive an allowance only for meals and incidental expenses when your employer does one of the following.

• Provides you with lodging (furnishes it in kind).
• Reimburses you, based on your receipts, for the actual cost of your lodging.
• Pays the hotel, motel, etc., directly for your lodging.
• Doesn’t have a reasonable belief that you had (or will have) lodging expenses, such as when you stay with friends or relatives or sleep in the cab of your truck.
• Figures the allowance on a basis similar to that used in computing your compensation, such as number of hours worked or miles traveled.

To report your reservist related expenses, including the cost of your meals,    in TurboTax follow these steps:

• Sign into your TurboTax account
• Click on Federal Taxes tab
• Choose Deductions and Credits
• Scroll down to Employment Expenses
• Continue through interview to Any Special Situations?  answer Yes
• On the next screen you will enter your Military reservist travel expenses

Note:  All other expenses, not related to your reserve duties, are entered as "regular" job-related expenses.

[Lylecd]

How do you put in airline and rental car expenses that you were not reimbursed for. I only see options for millage, parking and tolls, lodging and m&i?

[mmulroy87]

I am also curious about this. Along with rental car expenses

[Lylecd]

If you look at its form 2106 the business expense form. it goes in the second block.  Anything that is overnight goes in that block.  I suggest looking for yourself I am not a tax professional but that’s the way the actual form reads.  The software doesn’t give enough detail. 

[bp2005]

Any resolution to this?  Thanks!

[DMarkM1]

See pages 3 and 4 of these instructions for completing the form 2106.  To summarize, "if you are a member of a reserve component of the Armed Forces, special rules apply to deducting your employee business expenses.  The amount of expenses you can deduct on Schedule 1 (Form 1040 or 1040-SR), line 11, is limited to the regular federal per diem rate (for lodging, meals, and incidental expenses) and the standard mileage rate (for car expenses), plus any parking fees, ferry fees, and tolls. These reserve-related travel expenses are deductible whether or not you itemize deductions." 

TurboTax only offers the above choices for reservists in accordance with these intructions.  

[madpunter88]

Were you able to figure out a solution to this?  It seems like the IRS pub and form (along with TurboTax) failed to contemplate that some Armed Forces Reservists pay to travel by airplane and rental car for duty that is greater than 100 miles from home.  The assumption appears to be that reservists would only drive their own vehicle to duty, which is not the case.  There does not appear to be a rationale reason NOT to allow airplane and rental car expenses to be deductible, but neither the Form 2106 or Turbo Tax provide a way to account for it.

I have heard other reservists who travel by airplane (like me) suggest that these expenses be counted as vehicle expenses as long as the airplane and rental car costs are equal to or less than what the mileage cost would have been for the same trips.  But that still seems like a work-around.  It would be nice if Turbo Tax could address this.

[DMarkM1]

TurboTax is set up to follow the IRS rules for these deductions.  If the IRS changes the rules and forms TurboTax will update as needed. 

[Doogie Tomcat]

I am behind one year in my taxes (2018) but had the same question.  I will assume that the same process will work for 2019 taxes.  After some research this is what I found:  In Turbo Tax, when entering reserve expenses, from the VIEW drop down on the bar at the top of the page select <Go to Forms>.  Find the Step 1 section, item 3, travel expenses.  This is where you can enter airline tickets and rental car expenses.  Just make sure to have your documents ready should the IRS come knocking.  Cheers! 

[JohnB5677]

You may report your expenses under Job Related Expenses & follow the prompts for Reserve Military entries. TurboTax will handle the entries to your tax return for the best result in your situation.

The easiest way to find this section of TurboTax is to use the Search box at the top right side of the TurboTax header. Type in  "2106" and hit Enter. Click on the "jump to 2106" link to the Job-Related Expenses section

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