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Can pilots or flight attendants write off meal expenses for day trips?
Pilots and flight attendants often fly trips that do not have overnights or layovers. When this occurs, the cannot write off the meal expenses for those days. The only exceptions to this is if a stop for the purpose of resting was planned for this trip. Strategically, pilots and flight attendants might want to consider two-day trips rather that day-trips in order to maximize their meal expense tax deductions.
It should be noted that on the days where a pilot or a flight attendant flies a day-trip, their per diem reimbursement from their employer is paid as taxable per diem. That means that while they do get reimbursed in the form of per diem from their airline contract per diem rate, the per diem actually goes as income in Box 1 of the pilot or flight attendant's W-2.
In contrast, if a pilot or a flight attendant flies a two-day-trip, the per diem is paid as nontaxable per diem and is recorded in Box 12b Code "L" on the W-2.
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