Travel and Transportation Travel refers to trips you take to places where you need to spendthe night away from home - for example, travel to a distant cityto attend a business-related function or convention. Transportationrefers to trips you make in the area where you live and work-forexample, transportation to call on customers or make deliveries inyour city and its suburbs. You must be able to prove your expenses for travel andtransportation. Deductions for travel and transportation are looked atclosely when the IRS examines returns. For more information, seeRecordkeeping, later. Travel If you temporarily travel away from your tax home on business, youcan deduct your ordinary and necessary travel expenses. You cannotdeduct lavish or extravagant expenses or those for personal orvacation purposes. You can deduct all of your travel expenses if your trip wasentirely business related. This includes expenses incurred when youattend a seminar, meeting, convention, or other function if you canshow that your attendance benefits your direct selling business. Ifyour trip was primarily for business and, while at your businessdestination, you extended your stay for a vacation, made a nonbusinessside trip, or had other nonbusiness activities, you can deduct onlyyour business-related travel expenses. These expenses include thetravel costs of getting to and from your business destination and anybusiness-related expenses at your business destination. Example.You live in and conduct your direct selling business from Atlantaand take a business trip to New Orleans. On your way home, you stop inMobile to visit your parents. You spend $630 for the 9 days you areaway from home for travel, meals, lodging, and other travel expenses.If you had not stopped in Mobile, you would have been gone only 6days, and your total cost would have been $580. You can deduct $580for your trip, including the cost of round-trip transportation to andfrom New Orleans. The cost of your meals is subject to the 50% limiton meals mentioned later. Paris cheap hotelsIf your trip was primarily for personal reasons, such as avacation, the entire cost of the trip is a nondeductible personalexpense. However, you can deduct any expenses you have while at yourdestination that are directly related to your business. For more information, see Publication 463. Transportation You can deduct transportation expenses for your business.Generally, business transportation is traveling between two or moreworkplaces in the same day or between your home and a temporary worklocation. It includes the following kinds of trips you make in thearea where you live and work. Calling on customers Making deliveries Picking up goods Attending business meetings Transportation expenses can include train, bus, and cab fares,car rental fees, and the cost of driving and maintaining your car forbusiness transportation. Meals and lodging are not included intransportation expenses. Commuting expenses.You cannot deduct the cost of transportation between your home andyour main or regular place of work. The cost of commuting is anondeductible personal expense, regardless of the distance or whetherwork is performed during the trip. Example.Elaine works full time as a bank teller. She also sells cosmeticspart time to her co-workers at the bank. After her customers selectitems from a catalog, she sends the orders to the cosmetics company.She delivers the items to the bank when she receives them from thecompany. Elaine's expense of delivering items is not deductible. Her cost ofgetting to the bank is a commuting expense. The fact that she carriescosmetics does not make her commuting expense a deductible businessexpense. Two places of work.If you work at two places in one day, you can deduct the expense ofgetting from one to the other. However, if for some personal reasonyou do not go directly from one location to the other, you cannotdeduct more than the amount it would have cost you to go directly fromthe first location to the second. Deductible expenses.If you use your vehicle in your business, see Publication 463 forinformation on how to figure your expenses for businesstransportation.