Weekend home trips

[Gretel]

If out of town employee goes home on weekends his expenses are either his SMR (assume no overnight stay on home trip) or, if lower, the per diem rate plus lodging had he stayed on job site.

If per diem rate is $31, is this the amount I take for this calculation, or do I take $16 since this is the actual amount he would be able to deduct? I think it's the second one but I am not sure.

[Bees Knees]

Regulation Section 1.274-5(j) says: “The Commissioner may establish a method under which a taxpayer may use a specified amount or amounts for meals while traveling away from home in lieu of substantiating the actual cost of meals…”

In other words, the per diem rates for purposes of the standard meal allowance are treated the same as deducting actual costs. It would be no different than using the standard mileage rate to calculate the cost of traveling for business. So I would say use the standard meal allowance for the actual cost.

[JON]

Experience

I think I already posted this. A client's sister had gone through an audit and he wanted me to look at the results. They owed a chunk, but could have been worse. The out of town per diem was recalulated by allowing one half on the day out and the day back. I never researched it and in this case their records were so bad the net IRS adjustment seemed like a huge break based on what I saw.