PA No Longer Allows Federal M&IE Deductions

[traveltax]

I stumbled across this today while going through the 2011 PA tax booklet. For 2011 and forward, PA does not allow a taxpayer to claim the federal meal rate - only actual expenses for meals. This applies to all business travelers including truckers.

This only affects travelers who are PA residents and those working assignments in PA.

PA is the only state with this limitation. The Federal government and all other states follow the Internal Revenue Code in this area. Strange twist.

[Rennhack]

That sucks, there are a lot of nuclear plants in PA.

[Already Gone]

But, don't panic.

This does not affect persons whose M&IE are fully reimbursed.

If you receive reimbursement for business related expenses, either using the actual expense or per diem methods, you won't have any deductions to take from your state or federal income tax.

The only people affected are those who are NOT fully reimbursed and take the deduction for un-reimbursed business expenses.

So, for those of us who travel and get per diem, this should have no effect, since the only people who both get per diem and deduct expenses are those who deduct actual expenses that exceed per diem.  Not only is that very rare, but if you are doing this, you will still be doing the same as before.