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CAUTION

You cannot avoid the entertainment disallowance rule by inflating the amount charged for food and beverages.

• Other taxes and license fees not related to your business.

Line 24a Enter your expenses for lodging and transportation connected with overnight travel for business while away from your tax home. In most cases, your tax home is your main place of business, regardless of where you maintain your family home. You can’t deduct expenses paid or incurred in connection with employment away from home if that period of employment exceeds 1 year. Also, you cannot deduct travel expenses for your spouse, your dependent, or any other individual unless that person is your employee, the travel is for a bona fide business purpose, and the expenses would otherwise be deductible by that person.

Do not include expenses for meals on this line. Instead, see Line 24b, later. Do not include entertainment expenses on this line.

See Regulations sections 1.274-11 and 1.274-12 for examples and more information.

Standard meal allowance. Instead of deducting the actual cost of your meals while traveling away from home, you can use the standard meal allowance for your daily meals and incidental expenses. Under this method, you deduct a specified amount, depending on where you travel, instead of keeping records of your actual meal expenses. However, you must still keep records to prove the time, place, and business purpose of your travel.

The standard meal allowance is the federal meals and incidental expenses (M&IE) rate. You can find these rates for locations inside and outside the continental United States by going to the General Services Administration’s website at GSA.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates/mie-breakdown .

See chapter 2 of Pub. 463 for details on how to figure your deduction using the standard meal allowance, including special rules for partial days of travel. For special per diem rates and rules of high cost locales, see Notice 2024-68, available at

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IRS.gov/irb/2024-41_IRB#NOT-2024-68 . Notice 2024-68 provides the rates and list of high-cost localities for the period October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025. For subsequent periods, see Notice 2025-54, available at IRS.gov/irb/ 2025-41_IRB#NOT-2025-54 .

Amount of deduction. In most cases, you can deduct only 50% of your business meal expenses, including meals incurred while away from home on business. However, for individuals subject to the Department of Transportation (DOT) hours of service limits, the percentage is increased to 80% for business meals consumed during or incident to any period of duty for which those limits are in effect. Individuals subject to the DOT hours of service limits include the following.

• Certain air transportation workers (such as pilots, crew, dispatchers, mechanics, and control tower operators) who are under Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

• Interstate truck operators who are under DOT regulations.

• Certain merchant mariners who are under Coast Guard regulations.

However, you can fully deduct meals and incidentals furnished or reimbursed to an employee if you properly treat the expense as wages subject to withholding. You can also fully deduct meals and incidentals provided to a nonemployee to the extent the expenses are includible in the gross income of that person and reported on Form 1099-NEC. See chapter 5 of Pub. 15, Employer’s Tax Guide, for details and other exceptions. See also chapter 8 of Pub. 334 .

Daycare providers. If you qualify as a family daycare provider, you can use the standard meal and snack rates, instead of actual costs, to figure the deductible cost of meals and snacks provided to eligible children. If you receive reimbursement under a food program of the Department of Agriculture, only deduct the cost of food that exceeds reimbursement, if any. See Pub. 587 for details, including recordkeeping requirements.

Line 25 Deduct utility expenses only for your trade or business.

Local telephone service. If you used your home phone for business, do not deduct the base rate (including taxes) of the first phone line into your residence. But you can deduct any additional costs you incurred for business that are more than the base rate of the first phone line. For example, if you had a second line, you can deduct the business percentage of the charges for that line, including the base rate charges.

Line 26 Enter the total salaries and wages for the tax year reduced by the amount of the following credit(s), if applicable.

• Work Opportunity Credit (Form 5884).

• Empowerment Zone Employment Credit (Form 8844).

• Credit for Employer Differential Wage Payments (Form 8932).

• Employer Credit for Paid Family and Medical Leave (Form 8994).

Do not reduce your deduction for any portion of a credit that was passed through to you from a pass-through entity. See the instructions for the credit form for more information.

Do not include salaries and wages deducted elsewhere on your return or amounts paid to yourself.

If you provided taxable fringe benefits to your