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amounts spent for travel, meals, or lodging while you are away from home overnight. Example 1. You regularly work in a nearby town, and go directly from work to home. You also attend school ev- ery work night for 3 months to take a course that improves your job skills. Since you are attending school on a tempo- rary basis, you can deduct your daily roundtrip transporta- tion expenses in going between home and school. This is true regardless of the distance traveled. Example 2. Assume the same facts as in Example 1, except that on certain nights you go directly from work to school and then home. You can deduct your transporta- tion expenses from your regular work site to school and then home. Example 3. Assume the same facts as in Example 1, except that you attend the school for 9 months on Satur- days, nonwork days. Since you are attending school on a temporary basis, you can deduct your roundtrip transpor- tation expenses in going between home and school. Example 4. Assume the same facts as in Example 1, except that you attend classes twice a week for 15 months. Since your attendance in school isn't considered temporary, you can't deduct your transportation expenses in going between home and school. If you go directly from work to school, you can deduct the one-way transporta- tion expenses of going from work to school. If you go from work to home to school and return home, your transporta- tion expenses can't be more than if you had gone directly from work to school. Using your car. If you use your car (whether you own or lease it) for transportation to school, you can deduct your actual expenses or use the standard mileage rate to figure the amount you can deduct. The standard mileage rate for miles driven from January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2021, is 56 cents a mile. Whichever method you use, you can also deduct parking fees and tolls. See Pub. 463, chapter 4, for information on deducting your actual expen- ses of using a car. Travel Expenses You can deduct expenses for travel, meals (see 50% limit on meals, later), and lodging if you travel overnight mainly to obtain qualifying work-related education. Travel expenses for qualifying work-related education are treated the same as travel expenses for other em- ployee business purposes. For more information, see chapter 1 of Pub. 463. You can't deduct expenses for personal activities such as sightseeing, visiting, or entertaining. Mainly personal travel. If your travel away from home is mainly personal, you can't deduct all of your expenses for travel, meals, and lodging. You can deduct only your ex- penses for lodging and meals (see 50% limit on meals, CAUTION ! later) during the time you attend the qualified educational activities. Whether a trip's purpose is mainly personal or educa- tional depends upon the facts and circumstances. An im- portant factor is the comparison of time spent on personal activities with time spent on educational activities. If you spend more time on personal activities, the trip is consid- ered mainly educational only if you can show a substantial nonpersonal reason for traveling to a particular location. Example 1. John works in Newark, New Jersey. He traveled to Chicago to take a deductible 1-week course at the request of his employer. His main reason for going to Chicago was to take the course. While there, he took a sightseeing trip, entertained some friends, and took a side trip to Pleasantville for a day. Since the trip was mainly for business, John can de- duct his roundtrip airfare to Chicago. He can't deduct his transportation expenses of going to Pleasantville. He can deduct only the meals (see 50% limit on meals, later) and lodging connected with his educational activities. Example 2. Sue works in Boston. She went to a uni- versity in Michigan to take a course for work. The course is qualifying work-related education. She took one course, which is one-fourth of a full course load of study. She spent the rest of the time on personal activities. Her reasons for taking the course in Michigan were all personal. Sue's trip is mainly personal because three-fourths of her time is considered personal time. She can't deduct the cost of her roundtrip train ticket to Michigan. She can de- duct one-fourth of the meals (see 50% limit on meals, later) and lodging costs for the time she attended the uni- versity. Example 3. Dave works in Nashville and recently trav- eled to California to take a 2-week seminar. The seminar is qualifying work-related education. While there, he spent an extra 8 weeks on personal ac- tivities. The facts, including the extra 8-week stay, show that his main purpose was to take a vacation. Dave can't deduct his roundtrip airfare or his meals and lodging for the 8 weeks. He can deduct only his expenses for meals (see 50% limit on meals, later) and lodging for the 2 weeks he attended the seminar. Cruises and conventions. Certain cruises and conven- tions offer seminars or courses as part of their itinerary. Even if the seminars or courses are work related, your de- duction for travel may be limited. This applies to: • Travel by ocean liner, cruise ship, or other form of luxury water transportation; and • Conventions outside the North American area. For a discussion of the limits on travel expense deduc- tions that apply to cruises and conventions, see Luxury Water Travel and Conventions in chapter 1 of Pub. 463. 50% limit on meals. Generally, you can deduct only 50% of the cost of your meals while traveling away from Page 64 Chapter 11 Business Deduction for Work-Related Education