Report Explanation !

Please read the following explanation.

While we at FlightCrew Resources do not personally prepare taxes, we are confident you will find our material useful in computing your Business Travel Expenses, for Tax Filing Purposes. What follows, is a brief explanation of what you will see in a typical Layover Expense Tax Report;

According to IRS guidelines;

“For tax purposes, Taxpayers can deduct [on IRS Form: 2106] “reasonable and necessary” Meal and Incidental Expenses (M&IE ) while on Business related Travel. The IRS/GSA periodically publishes allowable M&IE Rates for each city/country. You may use these “standard” city rates in lieu of keeping individual receipts for your incurred expenses”.

However;

“For both the day you depart on and the day you return from a business trip, you must prorate the standard M&IE meal allowance (figure a reduced amount for each day). To make reporting easier, you may claim ¾ of the standard meal allowance for each of these Travel Days, and claim the full daily rate for the days in between”.

To conform with these IRS guidelines; On the Layover Report, actual Travel Times for the first and last day of each Trip have been adjusted (ADJ) to 3/4 of a day (06:00 and 18:00 respectively). Therefore, a typical 3-Day Trip equates to 2.5 days X 24:00 hrs or 60:00 hrs of authorized Per Diem Expenses at the IRS/GSA published “standard” M&IE City Rate for the Layover City effective on the final day of the layover.

When you look at the Layover Report example, you will see the Layover City Code, followed by the City Name and Daily M&IE Rate from the IRS/GSA database. Next you will see the DEP/ARR Dates, followed by the ¾ Day adjusted (ADJ) DEP/ARR Times. Next you will see the TAFB Time, the IRS published Rate converted to an Hourly Rate and finally, the Total Per Diem Allowance (TAFB Time x Hourly Rate) for the Layover.