
Proving telephone and internet expenses can test practical limits as well. Reimbursements must have a clear correlation to actual expenses.

If the employee would receive the same amount of compensation anyway, the business connection requirement is not met. For instance, if a janitor is required to provide his or her own cleaning supplies and is paid $200 per day, an employer cannot simply designate $50 of the janitor's pay as reimbursed cleaning supply expense. In instances where employees are required to routinely provide their own tools and materials, reimbursement schemes should not resemble wages. Reimbursement for small tools can be a gray area that should be documented carefully (see Rev. Examples of nondeductible entertainment expenses under the TCJA include (Regs. If an employer reimburses entertainment expenses, the reimbursement must be treated as wages (Regs. Entertainment expenses are no longer deductible as such at all under the TCJA (Sec. For instance, meals may be reimbursed at 100% of the cost, even though the expense is only 50% deductible by the company. Reimbursing an expense does not change the deductibility of the expense itself.
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115- 97, redefined the deductibility of business expenses and disallowed the deduction of out- of- pocket expenses paid by employees on their personal tax return. The law known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), P.L. Accountable plans are a flexible tool to incentivize employees to pursue business goals and to facilitate employee- owners' deductions of expenses they incur in running their businesses. Conversely, if reimbursements are not legitimate business expenses or are not properly documented, they are taxable income to employees. They can do so - and the business can still claim a deduction for the expenditure - if their employer reimburses them through an accountable plan.Īccountable plans work on the simple concept that if reimbursement payments to business owners and their employees are properly claimed and documented, they are not taxable to the recipient. If employers reimburse the expenditures, employees might have to include the amount as taxable compensation but would generally prefer to receive a reimbursement tax- free, especially where they received no net benefit.

In most cases, they do so either expecting to be reimbursed or, until the end of 2017, expecting to claim the expenditures as a miscellaneous itemized deduction (above a threshold of 2% of adjusted gross income (AGI)). Employees, including business owner/employees, often are required to pay expenses out of pocket on behalf of their employer or business.
