Can reservists deduct travel over 100 miles?

Why reservists get a special rule

Most employees cannot deduct unreimbursed job travel after 2017, because the miscellaneous itemized deductions subject to the 2% floor are suspended. Armed Forces reservists are one of the four groups the publication allows to keep using Form 2106. For reserve travel that takes you more than 100 miles away from home, the deduction is even better than an itemized one: it comes off gross income, so you do not need to itemize, and it reduces adjusted gross income.

Who counts as a reservist

You are a member of a reserve component of the Armed Forces if you are in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force or Coast Guard Reserve, the Army National Guard of the United States, the Air National Guard of the United States, or the Reserve Corps of the Public Health Service. The 100-mile test is about the distance between your home and the place where you perform your reserve services, and it must be more than 100 miles, so exactly 100 does not qualify.

The cap: federal rates, not actual costs

What you can deduct is limited. Lodging and M&IE are capped at the regular federal per diem rate for the locality, which is the highest amount the federal government pays its employees there (published by GSA). Car expenses are capped at the standard mileage rate, which is 70 cents a mile for 2025. Parking fees, ferry fees and tolls are added on top. If your hotel and meals cost more than the federal rate, the difference is not part of the adjustment. If they cost less, you deduct the lower actual figure. Meals are also subject to the 50% limit (80% for individuals subject to Department of Transportation hours-of-service limits) before the cap, because the expenses are first figured on Form 2106.

How to report

The publication’s steps: complete Form 2106 first, then include your expenses for reserve travel over 100 miles from home, up to the federal rate, from Form 2106, line 10, in the total on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 12. You cannot deduct as an adjustment the expenses of travel that does not take you more than 100 miles from home. Keep the records the publication describes in chapter 5, such as dates, destination, cost of each separate expense and the business purpose.

Reimbursements matter. If the military or another payer reimbursed some costs under an accountable plan, only the unreimbursed part counts, and an allowance up to the federal rate generally stays off Form W-2 box 1 anyway.

A worked example

A reservist lives 340 miles from her drill location, counts 300 business car miles on the trip, and spends $620 on lodging and meals after the 50% meal limit. The regular federal per diem for those nights and days is $540. She paid $25 in tolls. The adjustment is min($620, $540) = $540, plus 300 x $0.70 = $210 for the car, plus $25 for tolls: $775. Enter 340, 620, 540, 300 and 25 above to see $775. Change the miles to 60 and the result is $0, because the trip did not exceed 100 miles. If instead the lodging and meals were $500, the lower actual figure would be used and the adjustment would be $735.

The calculator uses the standard mileage rate for the car portion. If you use actual car expenses, the publication caps the car portion at the standard mileage rate, so the standard amount is the upper bound.

Trips of 100 miles or less

Travel that does not exceed 100 miles is not lost entirely, but it is treated differently. A reserve meeting held on a day you work at your regular job is a second place of business, so getting from the first workplace to the meeting is deductible transportation. On a day you do not work your regular job, the trip is generally commuting unless the meeting location is temporary and you have a regular workplace, or you work in a metro area without a specific location and the meeting is outside it. Overnight travel to a guard or reserve meeting makes the expenses travel expenses under chapter 1. Members on a permanent overseas duty assignment are not traveling away from home.

Sources

• IRS Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses (2025): Chapter 6, Armed Forces Reservists Traveling More Than 100 Miles From Home; Member of a reserve component; How to report; Per Diem and Car Allowances; chapter 4, Armed Forces reservists; chapter 1, Members of the Armed Forces. Read November 2, 2026.

Edition read: Publication 463 (2025), for use in preparing 2025 returns. Rates and dollar limits on this page are the 2025 figures printed in that edition; check the current publication, form instructions and GSA.gov per diem tables for your tax year. This page summarizes the publication and does not replace it.