under the new tax law the tax deduction for all expenses subject to the 2% agi limit have been elimited. this includes all employee expenses. if her employer will go along, there is something your wife can do. basically she and her employer agree to reduce her salary by an amount she estimates to be what she would deduct for these expenses. she submits to her employer a periodic expense report detailing these expenses. it must be an accountable plan. she gets reimbursed but the reimbursement is not included on her w-2. the employer benefits because it saves some payroll taxes that would cover the administrative cost of the plan and gets a tax deduction for the reimbursements. you both benefit in that adjusted gross income is reduced. taxable income is reduced more than if a schedule A expense - no 2% haircut. your downside is overestimating what the expenses will be
An accountable plan is a mechanism for reimbursing employees for work-related expenses. It is important to be aware, however, that the expenses claimed under the plan are subject to scrutiny, as tax authorities are wary about business expenses used for tax deductions.
Three characteristics must be present for something to be an accountable plan. The first is that employees must be reimbursed for expenses that are allowable. Paying for a hotel room while at a conference would be an example of a legitimate business expense. Buying tickets to a play while at the conference, however, would not count under the accountable plan unless attending the play was required for a work reason.
Second, there must also be a method for logging and reporting expenses under the accountable plan. This includes submitting receipts and carefully documented expense statements, logging mileage, producing credit card statements to demonstrate which credit card was used to pay for an expense, and so forth. Finally, if employers are provided with excess reimbursements, as for example if an employee is given cash ahead of time for a trip, the extra money must be returned in a timely fashion. The documentation kept by the employee should demonstrate that funds were leftover.
