With the economy sitting in its current state people are looking for any way possible to reduce their expenses for business and/or anything else that may have set them back more than they wanted throughout the year. This means that people who have to travel for work or related reasons often find themselves wondering what exactly they can write off in their tax returns. Fortunately, the IRS does allow you to claim most of the expenditures that you are likely to incur if you must travel out of town for either a business trip or to relocate for a new or current employer.

The first instance, where you must travel for a trip and then come home, is the easier to claim on a tax form. In this example you simply keep track of all expenses that you paid and your employer did not reimburse you for; this includes your flight, rental car and even your food related expenses. Once tax time rolls around you just have to list it on the proper form and you will be reimbursed by the IRS for the costs.

Next you have your relocation costs. The government will only allow a certain percentage of the fees that you incur to be claimed on your taxes if you relocate for a job. In many cases they will allow you to use most of what your employer doesn’t cover including your rental car costs and fuel. Unfortunately, because of the nature of this type of travel, not everything that you put into the move will be fully reimbursed to you and, unlike business trips, you will not be able to write off your food and other expenses because of that, but at least you will get most of your money back.