Question

Consultant / Travel Expenses limited by Occupation (2018)

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
July 27, 2020
1 reply
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I'm late doing 2018 taxes and can use a little help. I contracted in a city 360 miles from home, and drove or flew to my client's site 2x per month and stayed in hotels or rented rooms. The 2018 tax form limits occupations that can claim the expenses. Is there any way to include travel expenses on the 2018 form?

O

Opus 17

Employee

W-2 employees cannot deduct work related expenses starting with tax year 2018, following the tax cuts and jobs act. The standard deduction was doubled and in return, some itemized deductions, including work related expenses, were eliminated. Your employer could reimburse you.

if you are a schedule C tax payer filing as a sole proprietor or small business, you can still deduct work related travel but that is on schedule C, not schedule A.

Hal_Al

Employee

It's not clear where the statement "The 2018 tax form limits occupations that can claim the expenses." comes from.

As others have said, a self employed consultant deducts all his "ordinary and necessary" expenses on Schedule C, not Schedule A and not Schedule 1 (lines 10 and 11).