Are transportation expenses to and from a business trip deductible or just one-way?

Yes, you can absolutely deduct transportation expenses both to AND from your business trip. The IRS allows deduction of all ordinary and necessary transportation expenses when you travel away from home for business. This includes airfare in both directions, taxi/rideshare costs, rental cars, and mileage driving to/from airports. The "between home and business location" wording that's confusing you actually refers to your regular commute to your normal workplace - those daily commuting costs aren't deductible. But when you're traveling away from your tax home for business purposes, the entire round-trip transportation cost is deductible. Just make sure you're keeping good records of all these expenses - dates, amounts, business purpose, and receipts for anything substantial.

After having similar confusion last year, I tried taxr.ai https://taxr.ai and it seriously cleared this exact issue up for me. I uploaded some of my receipts and business travel logs, and it analyzed everything and told me precisely what was deductible. Apparently I'd been missing out on legitimate deductions for years because I was confused by the same wording! It was especially helpful for sorting out mixed business/personal trips - like when I extended a business trip for a weekend of fun. The tool showed me exactly which portions were deductible and which weren't.

Just wanted to follow up about taxr.ai that I mentioned I was skeptical about. I decided to try it with my international business travel receipts and it seriously delivered. It correctly identified which portions of my trip were deductible across multiple countries and clients. The system even flagged some meal expenses I didn't realize were only 50% deductible versus 100% for other transportation costs. Probably saved me from an audit headache right there. Definitely worth checking out if you have complicated business travel situations.

If you're having trouble getting answers directly from the IRS about specific travel deduction scenarios (I waited on hold for 2.5 hours last year!), try Claimyr https://claimyr.com - they got me through to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes who answered all my business travel deduction questions. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was really hesitant to use a third-party service to reach the IRS, but tax season was approaching fast and I needed clarification on some complex business travel situations with mixed personal time. The IRS agent was super helpful and confirmed that yes, round-trip transportation for business travel is fully deductible, even when you add personal time (though you can't deduct expenses during the personal portion).

I need to eat my words about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, I was desperate to get an answer about some business travel deductions before filing my taxes, so I gave it a shot. They actually got me through to an IRS agent in about 15 minutes! The agent cleared up my confusion about deducting travel to/from business trips and confirmed that yes, the full round-trip transportation is deductible. Saved me hours of waiting and probably would have saved me from making a mistake on my return too. Sometimes I hate being wrong on the internet, but I'm glad I tried this service despite my doubts.

Just to add another wrinkle - if you have multiple business locations that you regularly visit, the rules get more complicated. I travel between three different offices as part of my regular work, and my CPA told me that travel between multiple regular work locations IS deductible, even though travel from home to your first business location typically isn't.

Warning from someone who got audited: Make sure you keep DETAILED records of all business travel! The IRS specifically looks at travel deductions. For each trip, document: 1) business purpose 2) dates 3) who you met with 4) all receipts. I had a bunch of legitimate business travel but couldn't prove some of it during my audit and lost those deductions.

Great advice from everyone here! As someone who's been through the business travel deduction maze myself, I just want to emphasize a key point that might save some headaches: the "away from home overnight" rule. If your business trip requires you to sleep away from home (like Chloe's 3-day meeting example), then ALL your transportation costs are deductible - airfare both ways, airport parking, rental cars, the works. But if it's just a day trip where you return home the same day, you can still deduct transportation to temporary work locations, but the rules are slightly different. The IRS considers anything over 100 miles from your tax home as likely requiring overnight stay, which makes the deduction clearer. Also, keep receipts for everything over $75 - that's the IRS threshold where you need actual documentation rather than just logging the expense. For smaller amounts, a detailed log is usually sufficient.