Originally Posted by Hockeyjr1

I actually just went through this last night with turbo tax. They need the full amount of what you are writing off and then they will break it down to the 80% maximum, and take out the 2% “upper limit” also. The only thing you need to do is to either take the standard $51 per day or find the daily rates for each city you overnighted in. I made a spreadsheet to keep track of all of this.

Only other thing is the first and last days of your trip aren’t considered full days so you need to reduce your rates to 75% for them. Once you put in the total claiming and the total you were paid, the system subtracts the 2 and gives your final write off total.

Like most said now, unless you have a bunch of other write offs, next year when the standard deductions double this is probably going to not be worth the hassle. And honestly don’t even know if it’s allowed in the new tax code.

Feel bad for the perdiem tax calc site, as they are going to lose a lot of business starting next year.

Originally Posted by VArellano

I'm using H&R Block's online tax software and its asking me about out of state income. I live in Indiana, and am based in Chicago. But the paychecks come from Texas. Which state should I be selecting for where I actually earned my income?

Originally Posted by Subpilot

With taking the per diem standard deduction and also deducting union dues, FAA Medical, luggage, uniform purchases and laundry, phone and internet bill, etc, I was able to deduct almost $7600 from my taxes. I didn’t do this the past years so now I am filing 1040x’s to recoup those expenses. You have three years you can go back. It’s totally worth it and it only took me one morning to do all the calculations for 3 years.

Originally Posted by dvtpilot

I need to look into this. Do you do the whole amount of the phone and internet bill?

Originally Posted by Name User

For the per diem deduction remember you must include your company reimbursed per diem as well when it asks if your were reimbursed for any expenses. You don't get to write off the whole thing, just 80% of the "underpayment" from the company.

Originally Posted by Subpilot

Correct. That amount can be find as item L on your W2.

Originally Posted by griff312

Interesting... I went through all of my pay statements from 2017 and added up the total TAFB payments (pre diem payments) for the year. There is a $1872.66 difference between my total TAFB and what's in item "L". I.e. my total TAFB equals 4468.22, and item "L" is showing 6340.88. What else could they be adding to that figure? The only reimbursed expenses I received are parking ($300.00 / yr), and the Christmas dinner reimbursement ($100). That certainly does not add up to 1872.66....
Anyone else have this discrepancy?