Is the mileage to and from Jury Duty deductible on my taxes for 2025?

Unfortunately, mileage for jury duty is generally not deductible for most taxpayers. Since the 2018 tax law changes, unreimbursed employee expenses and miscellaneous itemized deductions subject to the 2% floor (which would have included jury duty expenses) were suspended through 2025. The $6.50 daily payment you receive is technically taxable income, though it's so small most people don't worry about reporting it. The only people who can potentially deduct jury duty mileage now would be self-employed individuals if they can legitimately tie it to their business expenses, but that's a stretch and could raise audit flags. If you're tracking business mileage for a self-employed activity, make sure to keep jury duty mileage separate, as it's considered personal commuting and not business-related.

After struggling with a similar situation last year (60 mile round trip for jury duty!), I discovered taxr.ai https://taxr.ai when trying to figure out what deductions I could take. Their system analyzed my employment status and clarified exactly what was and wasn't deductible for my specific situation. You just upload documents or explain your situation and it gives you a clear answer based on current tax law rather than conflicting online advice. For jury duty specifically, it confirmed what others mentioned - that most expenses aren't deductible anymore for W-2 employees, but if you're self-employed there are some nuances worth exploring. Saved me from claiming deductions that might have triggered an audit.

Ok I tried taxr.ai and I'm actually impressed. I've been doing both W-2 work and 1099 contract work, and I was mixing up what expenses I could deduct for each income stream. The tool clarified that while my jury duty mileage isn't deductible for my regular job, I could potentially allocate some home office and other business expenses properly to my self-employment income which I wasn't doing correctly before. It even pointed out some business deductions I was missing entirely! Definitely clearer than the conflicting Google results I was finding. Going to save me a decent amount on my return next year.

If you're really concerned about this jury duty situation, you might want to talk directly to an IRS agent for the official answer. I was in a similar situation last year with some complicated deductions and spent HOURS trying to get through to the IRS. Eventually found Claimyr https://claimyr.com and watched their demo at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c and it actually got me through to an IRS agent in about 15 minutes. The agent confirmed that jury duty mileage isn't deductible anymore for regular employees, but they did explain some other deductions I qualified for. Saved me tons of frustration compared to the 2+ hours I spent on hold before hanging up the first time.

I owe everyone an apology - especially to Profile 14. I tried Claimyr today after spending 3 hours on hold with the IRS yesterday and getting disconnected. Got a callback with an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes! The agent confirmed jury duty mileage isn't deductible for regular W-2 employees anymore but gave me some guidance on handling my gig work deductions correctly. Sorry for being so dismissive before. Just so tired of scams and false promises with tax stuff, but this service actually delivered. Saved me from wasting another afternoon on hold.

Btw there's one scenario where jury duty "expenses" can indirectly help you - if your employer keeps paying your salary during jury duty but requires you to turn over your jury duty pay to them. In that case, you can deduct the amount you give to your employer as an adjustment to income (not an itemized deduction). It shows up on Schedule 1, Line 24a with the label "Jury duty pay." But this is just for the actual jury duty pay you receive and give to your employer, not for mileage or other expenses.

Has anyone actually calculated if it's even worth tracking and reporting jury duty pay? At $6.50 a day, even for a two week trial, that's only like $65. At most tax brackets that's going to save you what, like $15 in taxes? Seems like more hassle than it's worth unless you're doing a really long trial.

Just wanted to add my experience as someone who actually went through a long jury trial last year. I served for 3 weeks and the daily pay was similarly pathetic - $8/day in my county. The mileage really does add up when you're driving 40+ miles roundtrip every day for weeks. What frustrated me most was that I had to use vacation days from my regular job to serve, so I was essentially paying to do my civic duty. The lost wages were way more than any potential tax benefit anyway. One thing I learned though - some counties will reimburse parking fees if you keep receipts and ask. Mine didn't advertise this but when I complained about the $5/day parking on top of everything else, they actually reimbursed me for the full trial period. Worth asking about if you're dealing with expensive courthouse parking! The whole system really needs reform. It's basically a financial penalty for participating in our justice system.

This whole thread has been super helpful! I'm dealing with the same issue - got called for jury duty and it's a 35 mile drive each way. The compensation in my county is even worse at $5/day, which doesn't even cover gas. One thing I wanted to add that I learned from my accountant: if you're self-employed and have to reschedule client meetings or lose business income because of jury duty, you still can't deduct those lost earnings. It's considered a personal obligation, not a business expense, even though it directly impacts your business. The parking reimbursement tip from Mateo is gold though - I'm definitely going to ask about that when I report. Every little bit helps when you're basically volunteering your time and money for civic duty. It's frustrating that the tax code doesn't recognize the real costs of jury service, especially when courts are already struggling to get people to show up. Making it financially neutral would probably improve participation rates.