Travel Expenses for Schedule E

Expenses for Travel 

You can deduct ordinary and necessary auto and travel expenses related to your rental activities, including 50% of meal expenses incurred while traveling away from home. However, business meals are 100% deductible if the meals are food and beverages provided by a restaurant and paid or incurred after December 31, 2020, and before January 1, 2023. In most cases, you can either deduct your actual expenses or take the standard mileage rate. You must use actual expenses if you used more than four vehicles simultaneously in your rental activities (as in fleet operations). You cannot use actual expenses for a leased vehicle if you previously used the standard mileage rate for that vehicle.

You can use the standard mileage rate only if: 

• You owned the vehicle and used the standard mileage rate for the first year you placed the vehicle in service, or
• You leased the vehicle and are using the standard mileage rate for the entire lease period (except the period, if any, before 1998).

  For more information, see the Instructions for the Schedule E from the IRS Web site.