Can Per Diem deductions include family travel, meals and housing?
You cannot deduct anything. Since you're actually moving, your tax home will move with you. You can only deduct the moving expenses (actual moving - packing, shipping, and hotels while you drive yourself there).
"There are tax free bonds in the United States.  They are for things like public housing and other urban projects.  They are tax free for everyone but only rich people buy them.  Why?   The issue is that the tax free nature of the bond is included in its yield.  So rather than yielding say a 5% return, they figure that the owner is getting 20% off due to not paying taxes.  As a result, they only give a 4% return but are as risky as a 5% return investment.  Net result, only rich people invest in tax free bonds.  ""Rich"" is defined here to mean people paying a 20% tax on long term investment returns.   Or take the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction, which has been in the news recently.  Again, it is technically open to everyone.  But there is also a standard deduction that is open to everyone.  For the typical family, state and local taxes might be 5% of income.  So for a family making $100k a year, that's $5k.  The same family can take a $13k or so standard deduction instead of itemizing.  So why would they take the smaller deduction?   As a practical matter, two groups take the SALT deduction.  People rich enough to pay more than $13k in state and local taxes and people who also take the mortgage interest deduction.  So it helps a lot of people who are rich quite a bit.  And it helps a few middle class people some.   But if you are lower middle class with a $30k mortgage on a tiny house and paying 4% interest, then that's only $1200 a year.  Add in property taxes of $3000 and SALT of $2.8k and that's only $7k.  Even if the person gives $3k to charity, the $13k deduction is a lot better and requires less paperwork.   Contrast that with someone who has $500k mortgage at 3.6% interest.  That's $18k in interest alone.  Add in a SALT of $7k and property taxes of $50k, and there's $75k of itemized deductions, much better than $13k.  Now a $7k donation to charity is entirely deductible.  And even after the mortgage interest deduction goes away, the other $64k remains." "I always looked at it that ""business class"" is the standard class. If you want to save money for your personal travels then you can fly economy, if you want luxury you can fly first. But if your company wants you to travel, they shouldn't force you to fly less than business.  Economy is the loss of basic essentials (space, meals, drinks) in return for a lower price. It's not the way it should be as standard." "Assuming its in the US: No, it is not, and such things are usually treated as ""red flags"" for audit (and no, golf club memberships are not deductible either). The food expenses are not deductible in their entirety as well, only up to 50% of the actual expense, and only if it is directly business related. From what you've described, it sounds like if you have an audit coming you'll be in trouble. The purposes and activities of a club, not its name, will determine   whether or not you can deduct the dues. You cannot deduct dues paid   to: Country clubs, Golf and athletic clubs, Airline clubs, Hotel clubs, and Clubs operated to provide meals under circumstances generally considered to be conducive to business discussions." "Your actual question is a bit confusing, but parts of it are answerable. If your parents give you cash to buy a home, you use it for a cash sale, and you then repay them, then if they don't charge you interest (above and beyond any they may pay - treat their loan as entirely separate from yours.) that amount of not-charged interest is considered a gift.  You can look up these rates here, on the IRS website, called ""Applicable Federal Rates""; currently it's around 2.30% APR.  If the interest is that much, the interest isn't a gift, but part of a loan - though your parents will have to file some paperwork and you will also.  Search for more information about ""Intra-Family Loans"" for full details - and talk to a real estate lawyer. Separately, if your parents are the primary/only signors on the mortgage, and are thus effectively the property owner, there are two separate issues.  First, you're welcome to pay off the mortgage while you live there, and no tax issues exist (then) in terms of gift, though it's still owned in your parents' name - so you don't get the house, they'd have to gift that to you separately, though they can do that in stages to avoid gift tax ($14k worth of equity per year, or whatever the current year's annual limit is, per parent and per you/wife if applicable). H&R Block discusses the concept of Equitable Ownership, which determines who is able to take the property tax and mortgage interest deductions on the house.  Tax Almanac goes into a bit more detail on the subject.  Ultimately, another issue for a real estate attorney probably (or at least a CPA or tax attorney): you need to be very careful if you're going to try and get the tax deductions (which would be probably far more than the savings of a half percent of interest rate or whatnot).   In general, there are a lot of options for exactly how you structure the purchase, payments, and equity, and you should talk to a professional to find out exactly the right way to structure it.   This mortgage info site has some good tips for several different ways to structure things, just as an example. I would in particular suggest you pay attention to deductability of mortgage interest and property taxes, as those two can be a huge amount of tax savings and you can lose that very easily if you're not careful." "Short answer, yes. But this is not done through the deductions on Schedule A. This can happen if the employer creates a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) for its employees. This can be created for certain approved uses like medical and transportation expenses (a separate account for each category). You can contribute amounts within certain limits to these accounts (e.g. $255 a month for transportation), with pre-tax income, deduct the contributions, and then withdraw these funds to cover your transportation or medical expenses. They work like a (deductible) IRA, except that these are ""spending"" and not ""retirement"" accounts. Basically, the employer fulfills the role of ""IRA"" (FSA, actually) trustee, and does the supporting paperwork." I'm not an expert, but here's my $0.02. Deductions for business expenses are subject to the 2% rule. In other words, you can only deduct that which exceeds 2% of your AGI (Adjusted Gross Income). For example, say you have an AGI of $50,000, and you buy a laptop that costs $800. You won't get a write-off from that, because 2% of $50,000 is $1,000, and you can only deduct business-related expenses in excess of that $1,000. If you have an AGI of $50,000 and buy a $2,000 laptop, you can deduct a maximum of $1,000 ($2,000 minus 2% of $50,000 is $2,000 - $1,000 = $1,000). Additionally, you can write off the laptop only to the extent that you use it for business. So in other words, if you have an AGI of $50,000 and buy that $2,000 laptop, but only use it 50% for business, you can only write off $500. Theoretically, they can ask for verification of the business use of your laptop. A log or a diary would be what I would provide, but I'm not an IRS agent. "The piece is a little misguided at best and poor journalism at worst. The problem lies in the difference between what's deductible for individuals and what's deductible for corporations. The short version of the story is that corporations can deduct a hell of a lot more things than individuals can. Individual deductions are spelled out in the Internal Revenue Code. Stuff like medical expenses (above 7.5% of your AGI), certain educational things, etc.  For corporations, the basic rule is that they can deduct any ""ordinary and necessary"" business expenses. That includes operating, travel, interest, employee, etc.  I wish that the article had cited specific sections of the Code if this was some kind of loophole or something, but alas, it appears that they didn't. That leads me to believe that these companies are deducting the portion not paid to the government as a business expense.   ~~For what it's worth, I don't believe that a company can deduct those expenses for tax purposes unless it's to ""protect their business interests."" My assumption (I don't have the time or desire to search case law right now) is that settlements with the US Government are considered to fall under that definition.~~  **EDIT** - See my comment [here](http://www.reddit.com/r/business/comments/11dbzu/federal_regulators_have_lauded_a_series_of/c6ll7ez) for the relevant Treasury Regulation dealing with this." Assuming here that you're talking about deducting your tuition as a below the line deduction as a business expense or similar, then it depends. Per 1.162-5, if the education: Then it qualifies as a legitimate business expense and is deductible.  If not - if you're going to school for a different career, such as someone employed as a waiter but going to school to get a degree in nursing, or someone employed as a teacher getting a law degree - then it's not; you'd have to qualify under one of the other (simpler, but lesser) credits. Read more on this topic at Tax topic 513. Note that the other most commonly applicable deduction - the above the line Tuition and Fees deduction - expired in 2016 and is not applicable (yet?) in 2017, and further would not require most of what you describe as it only counts tuition and fees paid directly to the institution and required as a condition of attendance, so books, parking, etc. don't count.