Per diem is a daily fixed allowance a pilot or flight
attendant’s aviation employer might give the flight crewmember to reimburse them
for lodging, meals, and incidental expenses when they are away from home on
business. Per diem is also a term used by the IRS for their per diem charts
showing the local lodging, meals,
and incidental
expense rates. The
per diem rates used for the
per diem deduction
is not to be confused with the per diem paid by an aviation employer for
employee
business expense or
travel expense
reimbursement.
This concept can be a bit confusing, but think of this way: Per diem paid by an
aviation employer is a reimbursement for
M&IE expenses.
M&IE expenses are deductible (via the so called
per diem deduction). The per diem deduction
is really just a fake name for deducting meals
and incidental expenses. The M&IE expenses can be deducted by keeping
records of actual costs of M&IE expenses while on
trips, but a better (an much easier) way to get an
M&IE calculation is to use a service like
EZPERDIEM.COM to perform the per diem
calculation via the
standard meal
allowance methods described in
IRS Publication
463.
NOTE: Even though lodging is a possible per diem
reimbursement, lodging is not an expense that airline employees generally incur,
and therefore lodging is NOT allowed to be included in the per diem deduction.