Travel expenses must be ordinary and necessary. They can’t be lavish, extravagant or for personal purposes. Employers can deduct travel expenses paid or incurred during a temporary work assignment if the assignment is less than one year.

Before hitting the road in 2024, check out these deductible travel expenses:
• Travel by plane, train, bus or car between home and a business destination
• Fares for taxis or other types of transportation between an airport or train station and a hotel, or from a hotel to a work location
• Shipping of baggage and sample or display material between regular and temporary work locations
• Using a personally owned car for business
• Lodging and meals
• Dry cleaning and laundry
• Business calls and communication
• Tips paid for services related to any of these expenses
• Other similar ordinary and necessary expenses related to the business travel

Source:

The US federal government has yet again delayed nationwide security requirements for driver’s licenses and other identification cards, giving states more time to issue REAL IDs to residents.

The identification requirements were expected to kick in this coming spring. But they will be delayed another two years until May 7, 2025. That’s another 883 days away.

Once the new deadline is reached, US travelers 18 and older and taking domestic commercial flights in the United States must have a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license or other state photo identity card.

And it’s not just for air travel. The ID will also be needed to .

It’s marked by a star on the top of the card. Passports and other forms of approved identification will still be accepted.

How to get a REAL ID

If you don’t have a REAL ID yet, the DHS advises that you “visit your state’s driver’s licensing agency website to find out exactly what documentation is required to obtain a REAL ID.

At a minimum, DHS says you’ll need to provide the following documentation showing:

• Your full legal name
• Date of birth
• Social Security number
• Two proofs of address of your principal residence
• Lawful status

Source:

And that, according to a recent study from the (GBTA), is good news. The report found that while the state of the economy continued to raise points of concern for travel bookers, it was not something that would necessarily stop them from setting up a business trip, unlike with COVID.

Business travel is slowly but surely bouncing back to levels seen in 2019, according to the study of nearly 600 business travel buyers. Per the survey, domestic business travel is, on average, at 63 percent of pre-pandemic totals, while international travel is at 50 percent at where it was before lockdowns severely hampered the travel landscape.

But the optimism going into the new year is strong, with more than three-fourths of travel managers (78 percent) expecting their companies to take more business trips, while 85 percent of business-travel bookers expect more bookings overall. And while economic concerns might suggest a coming downturn, three-quarters of travel buyers say there are no plans to immediately limit travel because of it.

Those trips, travel managers believe, won’t just be limited to meetings bringing together staff that now largely works remote. Around two-thirds of travel managers expect to increase both internal travel (e.g., meetings with colleagues at other company locations) and external travel (e.g., sales trips or conferences).

, GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang said that these indicators are signs that, going into 2023, there will be much potential to make back many of the losses of the past three years. She cited the fact that certain parts of the world, particularly Asia, were still opening back up, while mask restrictions ended only recently.

“We continue to see progress as business travel makes its way back to being a $1.4 trillion global industry, pre-pandemic. It is also important to understand the context of global business travel’s recovery,” she said.

Source:

Isom said it would take approximately one year to get the airline’s main flight routes back to full capacity and two to three years for the regional routes. 

It comes after the airline canceled an additional 1,200 summer flights to minimize flight schedule disruptions. Summer travel on the airline (and ) has been wrought with , delays, and .

The airline recently offered pilots pay raises of up to $64,000 in an attempt to combat the shortage. Meanwhile, Allied Pilots union members are  in Chicago on July 26 to “send management a clear message” as they work to improve conditions for pilots.  

The pandemic brought travel to a near halt a year ago. U.S. airlines carried 60 percent fewer passengers in 2020 than in 2019, bringing passenger traffic to the lowest level since the mid-1980s, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Major U.S. airlines lost about $35 billion in 2020, but passenger numbers are climbing, and United and Delta said they could stop bleeding cash this month.

Airports screened nearly 1.5 million passengers on Friday. That compares to about 621,000 on the same weekday last year and 2.5 million in 2019, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The comparison offers a dramatic contrast in one year’s gain but brings into focus how far the industry has to go to be restored to 2019 levels.
Governments are offering both hopeful signs and caution.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still advises against travel. Meanwhile, some states, including New York and Connecticut, are relaxing rules requiring that inbound travelers quarantine.

State and local governments—even in heavily restrictive states such as Michigan and Illinois—are allowing restaurants to seat some patrons indoors again, which encourages travelers.

“There has been progressive growth in U.S. domestic bookings every week since the beginning of the year,” said Olivier Ponti, vice president of insights at ForwardKeys, a travel analytics company.

Airline executives have long said that travel demand would roar back once more people are vaccinated. While many international borders remain closed, airline executives said there are signs that pent-up demand is returning.

“Our last three weeks have been the best three weeks since the pandemic hit,” said American Airlines CEO Doug Parke.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

In this issue, we share Black’s thoughts on how companies can prepare for what is next in business travel by establishing smart policies, compliance standards and iron‐clad record keeping.

Map Out a Strategy

While the stakes are higher and companies need to control costs, a hard “no” on all travel puts you at risk of losing ground to your competitors.

Instead, establish a protocol for determining the business case for travel and how you’ll justify the expense, not only for new business but also teambuilding and onboarding. New hires will want to know the rules of engagement up front—if they’re fully remote, how often will they get face time with their colleagues to build relationships?

Build Inclusivity Into the Travel Policy

You may have many employees chomping at the bit to hop on the next plane. But for others who are high‐risk or have challenging family/personal situations, it may be unsafe or impossible for them to travel anytime soon.

You’ll need to be thoughtful about how you manage opportunities so that you don’t disadvantage that portion of your employees who can’t leave home.

Maintain Records and Compliance

At the risk of adding insult to injury after a long year, 2021 will very likely be the Year of the Audit. With travel on lockdown over the last year or so, governments have been extremely lenient about tax and legal issues related to where employees are working. With most of them now facing massive budget shortfalls, don’t expect that to continue. They are going to come calling and holding companies accountable.

Companies need to stay on top of who is/has been where for both compliance and health and safety reasons. Tracking employee location automatically, in real time, provides the most reliable, auditable solution to ensure and validate tax and legal compliance, as well as keep your employees safe.

As travel returns, which it no doubt will, it will bring with it a whole host of new complexities around keeping costs and risks low. Companies will need to be prepared with a sound strategy and technology to support it in order to stay on top of the competition.

This article was previously published on PhocusWire.com.