What Is Business Travel?

For tax purposes, business travel occurs when you travel away from your tax home for your business on a temporary basis. You don’t have to travel any set distance to get a travel expense deduction. However, you can’t take this deduction if you just spend the night in a motel across town. You must travel outside your city limits. If you don’t live in a city, you must go outside the general area where your business is located. You must stay away overnight or at least long enough to require a stop for sleep or rest.

Example: Phyllis, an engineer with her own firm based in Los Angeles, flies to san Francisco to meet potential clients, spends the night in a hotel, and returns home the following day. Her trip is a deductible travel expense.


You cannot satisfy the rest requirement by merely napping in your car. If you don’t stay overnight (or long enough to require sleep or rest), your trip will not qualify as business travel. However, this does not necessarily mean that you can’t take a tax deduction. Local business trips, other than commuting, are deductible. However, you may only deduct your transportation expenses—the cost of driving or using some other means of transportation. You may not deduct meals or other expenses as you can when you travel for business and stay overnight.

Example: Philip drives from his office in Los Angeles to a client meeting in San Diego and returns the same day. His 200-mile round trip is a deductible local business trip. He may deduct his expenses for the 200 business miles he drove, but he can’t deduct the breakfast he bought on the way to san Diego.