What is the standard per diem meal allowance and lodging reimbursement for self-employed contractors?
Hey everyone! Quick tax question here. I'm a self-employed contractor doing custom cabinetry work, and I've been traveling to a neighboring state for a big kitchen renovation project. I'll be there for about 5-6 weeks total. Can I claim the standard per diem rates for my meals and hotel stays when I file my taxes, or am I limited to only deducting my actual expenses with receipts? And if I can use the per diem rates, what's the current standard amount for lodging and meals? I've heard different things from different people. Thanks for any help you can provide - tax season is coming up fast and I want to make sure I'm tracking everything correctly!
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Val Rossi
As a regular in these tax forums, I can definitely help with your per diem question! Self-employed individuals CAN use the standard per diem rates for meals when traveling away from home for business. For meals specifically, you can deduct 50% of the standard meal rate without keeping detailed food receipts. For lodging, it's a bit different. Self-employed folks generally need to keep actual receipts for lodging expenses and deduct the actual amounts. The per diem lodging rates are typically only available to employees whose employers use the per diem system. The standard meal per diem rates vary by location - the general rate for most locations is $59 per day for meals in 2024, but high-cost areas can be as much as $79. You can find the specific rates for your work location on the GSA website (www.gsa.gov/perdiem). Even when using per diem rates for meals, you still need to document the business purpose, dates, and locations of your travel.
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Eve Freeman
•So if I understand correctly, I can use per diem for food but need receipts for the hotel? What about if I'm renting an Airbnb for the month instead of staying at a hotel? Are the rules different? And do I still get to deduct 50% of the standard meal rate or all of it?
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Val Rossi
•You're understanding correctly about using per diem for meals but needing receipts for lodging. Whether it's a hotel or Airbnb doesn't matter - you'll need documentation of your actual lodging expenses either way, but both are deductible as long as they're ordinary and necessary for your business travel. For meals, you can use the standard per diem rate for your location, but you can only deduct 50% of that amount on your taxes. So if you're in a location with the standard $59 meal rate, you'd be able to deduct $29.50 per day without meal receipts.
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Clarissa Flair
I was in a similar situation last year with my plumbing business and found a great solution at https://taxr.ai - it really helped me sort out all my per diem calculations and business travel deductions. Their system analyzed my work calendar and locations, then automatically calculated all the proper per diem rates based on where I was working. Saved me a ton of time figuring out all the different rates for different cities. The best part was that it helped me document everything properly for my Schedule C. The tool even explained which parts of my travel were deductible and which weren't based on my specific situation.
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Caden Turner
•Did it also help with figuring out the whole lodging vs meals distinction? I've got a small landscaping business and travel between three states. Always confused about what needs receipts and what doesn't.
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McKenzie Shade
•How accurate is their city database? I work in some pretty remote areas sometimes and worry that smaller towns might not be covered correctly. Would hate to use the wrong per diem rate and trigger an audit.
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Clarissa Flair
•Yes, it absolutely helped with distinguishing between lodging and meals requirements. It has separate sections for tracking actual lodging expenses (which need receipts as the expert mentioned) versus per diem meal allowances. Made it super clear what documentation I needed for each. Their location database is incredibly comprehensive. It uses the official GSA database which covers even small towns. If your specific town isn't listed, it automatically defaults to the standard rate for that state, which is exactly what the IRS expects. I worked in some pretty small places too and never had an issue with location recognition.
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McKenzie Shade
Just wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai after trying it based on the recommendation here. It was seriously helpful with my travel deduction situation! The system actually identified several cities I worked in that qualified for higher per diem rates than I realized. Ended up increasing my meal deductions by about $340 compared to what I would have calculated manually. What really impressed me was how it handled the documentation requirements - generated a clean report showing all my travel dates, locations, applicable rates, and calculated the 50% meal deduction automatically. Definitely worth checking out if you do regular travel work like the original poster.
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Harmony Love
If you're having trouble getting straight answers about per diem rates from the IRS website (which can be confusing), you might want to try calling them directly. I tried for DAYS to get through to someone at the IRS about a similar question last year and kept hitting dead ends until I used https://claimyr.com - they got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes instead of the hours I was spending on hold. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent I spoke with confirmed exactly how per diem works for self-employed contractors and cleared up my confusion about the documentation requirements. Turns out I had been over-documenting for years!
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Rudy Cenizo
•Wait, this actually works? I thought it was impossible to get through to the IRS these days. How much does this service cost? Seems too good to be true honestly.
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Natalie Khan
•I don't buy it. I've tried everything to get through to the IRS and nothing works. They're deliberately understaffed and there's no magic solution to jump the queue. Sounds like a scam to me.
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Harmony Love
•It does work! I was really skeptical at first too. They use some kind of system that navigates the IRS phone tree and holds your place in line, then calls you when they've got an agent. I don't remember the exact cost since it was last year, but it was reasonable enough that I didn't think twice about it given how many hours of my time it saved. I understand the skepticism - I felt the same way before trying it. It's definitely not a scam though. They don't ask for any personal tax info, just your phone number so they can call you when they reach an agent. You're free to try waiting on hold yourself first if you prefer!
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Natalie Khan
Ok I have to eat my words here. After posting that skeptical comment, I decided to try Claimyr anyway because I was desperate to get an answer about some 1099 issues along with per diem questions. It actually worked exactly as described - I got a call back in about 35 minutes with an IRS agent on the line. The agent confirmed everything the first commenter said about per diem - self-employed people can use the meal per diem (but only deduct 50%) and need receipts for lodging. She also pointed me to the exact publication (Publication 463) that covers all the rules. Honestly impressed and a little shocked this service actually delivered.
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Daryl Bright
Don't forget that you need to maintain a tax home somewhere to claim these travel expenses! If you're just working in different locations with no fixed base of operations, the IRS might consider you an itinerant worker and disallow all your travel deductions. Make sure you actually have a main place of business or regular work location.
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Sienna Gomez
•Could you explain what qualifies as a "tax home"? I thought it was just where you live, but it sounds like you're saying it's different. If I live in one state but do 75% of my work in another state, where's my tax home?
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Daryl Bright
•Great question! Your "tax home" isn't necessarily where you actually live - it's your regular place of business or work, regardless of where your family home is located. If you do 75% of your work in another state, that other state would likely be considered your tax home for tax purposes, which means travel there wouldn't be deductible. To deduct travel expenses, you need to be traveling away from your main place of business temporarily. The IRS generally considers "temporary" to be assignments expected to last less than one year.
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Kirsuktow DarkBlade
Has anyone used the IRS per diem app or is there a better app to track all this stuff? I'm terrible at keeping receipts but don't want to miss out on deductions.
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Abigail bergen
•I've been using Expensify for tracking my business travel. It lets you log per diem meals separately from your actual receipts for lodging. Super helpful for keeping everything organized for tax time.
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