business travel expenses increase

• Sustainability
• Small Business

Reimagining business travel, without all the baggage

Since travel came to a screeching halt in March 2020, many have predicted that business travel might never recover, given the advances of video conferencing and the embrace of work from home policies.

But global business travel spending is expected to surpass 2019 levels this year, according to the Global Business Travel Association’s Business Travel Index released in August — that's two years sooner than GBTA was forecasting the previous year. A Mastercard survey of travel decision-makers , also released in August, found that nine out of 10 believe business travel is still critical for driving growth, and more than half expect to spend more than $1 billion on travel in 2025, up from 11% pre-pandemic.

That’s music to the ears of airlines and convention hotels, but technological advances, changing expectations and new pressures have also altered the business travel landscape in ways that may ease the journey for road warriors and frequent flyers – and the corporate teams who manage their travel. Here are five trends shaping business travel in 2024.

01 'Bleisure' is here to stay

Remote work is here to stay, and some companies have even instituted “work from anywhere” benefits, giving employees the opportunity to stretch out vacations abroad or visits to family. It also means corporate travelers can extend business trips by a few days, giving them a chance to explore more than just the convention hall or hotel amenities. The days of two-day international business trips may soon be in the rear-view mirror, as employees enjoy the perks of flexible office policies. But a distributed workforce can create new challenges when it comes to monitoring spending — a person working from home might have different expenses than a traditional office worker, like buying subscriptions, office furniture and computer equipment, which can make it more difficult for companies to predict and account for spending.

02 Business travel, consumer experience

For companies, combining business and travel is not always smooth sailing — managing expenses and reimbursements can get complicated. And for employees, the ease of paying with a tap or a click in their daily lives is missing from travel and entertainment payments, as anyone who labored over an expense report can attest. That’s why many companies are moving to virtual cards for travel expenses. These cards are created instantly for specific purposes — a business trip, a client dinner at a conference, travel arrangements for a promising recruit — with customized spend controls, such as the amount, time period and type of purchase where the cards can be used, producing detailed data for tracking, reporting and automated reconciliation. They can even be issued directly to mobile wallets, creating contactless travel experiences.

These heightened consumer expectations could also make companies expand the benefits on their commercial and corporate T&E cards — better travel insurance, concierge support, telemedicine offerings and access to airport lounges, for example.

03 AI at your service

Another extension of the “consumerization” of business travel? The AI tools taking hold in the leisure travel sector, including virtual travel agents that can customize itineraries and lock in low fares, are likely to make waves in corporate travel as well. These bots can tailor travel based on T&E policy, budget and employee preferences. And with the cost of business travel rising – CWT’s Global Business Travel Forecast for 2024 shows a 3% rise in average cost per attendee per day for meetings and events, and a 3.6% increase in hotel rates — corporate travel teams can use AI for better price predictions, more proactively managing their budgets. It can also help these teams build more dynamic policies and even adjust spending limits by analyzing past spend on a much more granular level. AI tools can simplify the arduous expense report process for both employees and finance teams by automating the capture and review of repetitive and predictable expenses. Nine in 10 travel decision-makers plan on investing in AI and machine learning to improve processes and personalize travel for their employees, according to the Mastercard survey.

04 Tracking the impact of travel

Many corporations are making concerted efforts to lower their carbon footprint. Nine in 10 travel decision-makers in Mastercard’s survey said they are more focused on tracking environmental, social and governance efforts — greenhouse gas emissions from company travel, for example. Carbon emissions tracking tools that show carbon footprint of business trips and seat selections can drive more environmentally conscious travel decisions. With sustainability at the top of corporate agendas, we can expect companies to seek out ways to help them achieve their sustainability goals. Mastercard’s T&E Consulting Services, for example, helps corporations re-evaluate their T&E policies and procedures, assess supplier performance and improve for the future.  

05 The rise of the chief travel officer

At many organizations, the responsibility for corporate travel is split between human resources, finance, procurement, technology and even security teams. Even if they’re using the same tools and platforms, there’s often a disconnect when it comes to long-term strategy and decision-making. As business travel becomes more automated, larger companies may benefit from a chief travel officer — someone who can work across the organization to streamline processes, discover efficiencies and make the most of these emerging tools, enterprise solutions and corporate card benefits, including travel risk management services, concierge support and telemedicine offerings.

The resurgence of business travel illustrates the enduring value of in-person interactions — the building of relationships, the sparking of innovation, the deepening of trust that comes from sitting across the table or sharing a meal. Technology may have enabled the rise of virtual work, but technology is also making business travel smarter and more seamless than ever before.

This month, the Mastercard Newsroom is exploring how rapidly evolving technology, heightened consumer expectations and economic and societal pressures are changing how we live, work, shop and innovate.  

In-car payments

Development finance

Data for good

Business travel

Authentication

Personalization

• Perspectives
• The future of business travel
• Investor Relations

Mastercard Sites

• Mastercard.com
• Mastercard Brand Center
• Mastercard Data & Services
• Priceless.com

At Morgan Stanley, we lead with exceptional ideas. Across all our businesses, we offer keen insight on today's most critical issues.

Personal Finance

Learn from our industry leaders about how to manage your wealth and help meet your personal financial goals.

Market Trends

From volatility and geopolitics to economic trends and investment outlooks, stay informed on the key developments shaping today's markets.

Technology & Disruption

Whether it’s hardware, software or age-old businesses, everything today is ripe for disruption. Stay abreast of the latest trends and developments.

Sustainability

Our insightful research, advisory and investing capabilities give us unique and broad perspective on sustainability topics.

Diversity & Inclusion

Multicultural and women entrepreneurs are the cutting-edge leaders of businesses that power markets. Hear their stories and learn about how they are redefining the terms of success.

Wealth Management

Investment Banking & Capital Markets

Sales & Trading

Investment Management

Morgan Stanley at Work

Sustainable Investing

Inclusive Ventures Group

Morgan Stanley helps people, institutions and governments raise, manage and distribute the capital they need to achieve their goals.

We help people, businesses and institutions build, preserve and manage wealth so they can pursue their financial goals.

We have global expertise in market analysis and in advisory and capital-raising services for corporations, institutions and governments.

Global institutions, leading hedge funds and industry innovators turn to Morgan Stanley for sales, trading and market-making services.

We offer timely, integrated analysis of companies, sectors, markets and economies, helping clients with their most critical decisions.

We deliver active investment strategies across public and private markets and custom solutions to institutional and individual investors.

We provide comprehensive workplace financial solutions for organizations and their employees, combining personalized advice with modern technology.

We offer scalable investment products, foster innovative solutions and provide actionable insights across sustainability issues.

From our startup lab to our cutting-edge research, we broaden access to capital for diverse entrepreneurs and spotlight their success.

Core Values

Giving Back

Sponsorships

Since our founding in 1935, Morgan Stanley has consistently delivered first-class business in a first-class way. Underpinning all that we do are five core values.

Everything we do at Morgan Stanley is guided by our five core values: Do the right thing, put clients first, lead with exceptional ideas, commit to diversity and inclusion, and give back.

Morgan Stanley leadership is dedicated to conducting first-class business in a first-class way. Our board of directors and senior executives hold the belief that capital can and should benefit all of society.

From our origins as a small Wall Street partnership to becoming a global firm of more than 80,000 employees today, Morgan Stanley has been committed to clients and communities for 87 years.

The global presence that Morgan Stanley maintains is key to our clients' success, giving us keen insight across regions and markets, and allowing us to make a difference around the world.

Morgan Stanley is differentiated by the caliber of our diverse team. Our culture of access and inclusion has built our legacy and shapes our future, helping to strengthen our business and bring value to clients.

Our firm's commitment to sustainability informs our operations, governance, risk management, diversity efforts, philanthropy and research.

At Morgan Stanley, giving back is a core value—a central part of our culture globally. We live that commitment through long-lasting partnerships, community-based delivery and engaging our best asset—Morgan Stanley employees.

As a global financial services firm, Morgan Stanley is committed to technological innovation. We rely on our technologists around the world to create leading-edge, secure platforms for all our businesses.

At Morgan Stanley, we believe creating a more equitable society begins with investing in access, knowledge and resources to foster potential for all. We are committed to supporting the next generation of leaders and ensuring that they reflect the diversity of the world they inherit.

Why Morgan Stanley

How We Can Help

Building a Future We Believe In

Get Started

Stay in the Know

For 88 years, we’ve had a passion for what’s possible. We leverage the full resources of our firm to help individuals, families and institutions reach their financial goals.

At Morgan Stanley, we focus the expertise of the entire firm—our advice, data, strategies and insights—on creating solutions for our clients, large and small.

We have the experience and agility to partner with clients from individual investors to global CEOs. See how we can help you work toward your goals—even as they evolve over years or generations.

At Morgan Stanley, we put our beliefs to work. We lead with exceptional ideas, prioritize diversity and inclusion and find meaningful ways to give back—all to contribute to a future that benefits our clients and communities.

Meet one of our Financial Advisors and see how we can help you.

Get the latest insights, analyses and market trends in our newsletter, podcasts and videos.

• Opportunities
• Technology Professionals

Experienced Financial Advisors

We believe our greatest asset is our people. We value our commitment to diverse perspectives and a culture of inclusion across the firm. Discover who we are and the right opportunity for you.

Students & Graduates

A career at Morgan Stanley means belonging to an ideas-driven culture that embraces new perspectives to solve complex problems. See how you can make meaningful contributions as a student or recent graduate at Morgan Stanley.

Experienced Professionals

At Morgan Stanley, you’ll find trusted colleagues, committed mentors and a culture that values diverse perspectives, individual intellect and cross-collaboration. See how you can continue your career journey at Morgan Stanley.

At Morgan Stanley, our premier brand, robust resources and market leadership can offer you a new opportunity to grow your practice and continue to fulfill on your commitment to deliver tailored wealth management advice that helps your clients reach their financial goals.

• Dec 21, 2022

2023 Outlook: Business Travel Bounces Back

Corporate travel budgets are recovering to pre-covid levels, our new survey finds. see where companies are spending in the year ahead..

After grinding to a near halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, business trips—and profits for hotels and airlines catering to higher-paying corporate clients—are bouncing back even beyond pre-pandemic levels, per a recent survey from Morgan Stanley Research.

Despite higher airfares and room rates, the survey of 100 global corporate travel managers found that many respondents believe their company's travel expenditures are already back to pre-pandemic levels and will continue to grow. The biggest demand is coming from small companies, which means lower-cost airlines may benefit the more than their bigger peers.

“Travel budgets are expected to see a noticeable improvement in 2022, with 2023 nearly back to ‘normal,’” says Ravi Shanker, an equity analyst covering North American transportation.  “Most interesting is that nearly half of the respondents expect 2023 budgets to increase versus 2019 overall. And of those that expect an increase in budgets, the majority believe 2023 budgets will be between 6% to 10% higher than 2019.”

Overall travel budgets show an improvement over previous surveys, with 2023 budgets expected to be 98% of 2019 levels on average.

Survey Highlights

•   Smaller companies lead demand for corporate travel. More than two-thirds (68%) of companies with under $1 billion in annual revenue expect travel budgets to increase next year, versus just 41% of companies with annual revenues over $16 billion. Similarly, 32% of smaller companies said travel budgets had returned to pre-pandemic levels compared with 23% of big firms. “This trend could likely favor low-cost carriers, as smaller enterprises tend to be more localized and require less long-haul travel,” says Shanker. “However, the legacy carriers with strong corporate exposure should see gains as well.”  

Nearly a quarter of both large and small companies say their firms are already back to pre-COVID travel levels, and 34% anticipate a full recovery by the end of 2023.

ESG Rate of Change

Holiday budgets hit by inflation, seeing a peak for food prices.

•   Airfares are higher, but that’s not a drag on bookings. On average, corporate airfares are expected to be about 9% higher than pre-pandemic prices. “Clearly the expected increase in corporate airfares is not having a major impact on corporate travel as passenger volume is expected to be basically flat versus 2019,” says Shanker.
• Room rates will continue to rise, though not as fast as they have recently. As of this October, market room rates had spiked 20% to 25% over 2019. Next year they will rise even more, though by an average of just 8%, say respondents (9% in the U.S. and U.K.; 5% to 6% in Latin America, Asia and Africa).
• Hotels face economic and competitive headwinds. While overall travel budgets are growing, companies are cutting costs by trading down when it comes to accommodations. (Historically, budget hotels outperform upscale lodging in tough economic times.) Alternative sources of accommodation also threaten traditional hotels, with 31% of respondents saying they intend to use short-term rental services in the next year.
• Virtual meetings aren’t going away.  Almost 18% of corporate travel will be replaced with virtual meetings, falling slightly to 17% in 2024, suggesting a degree of permanence in the shift with companies recognizing the benefits of virtual meetings ranging from cost savings to lower carbon footprints. Expect companies providing collaboration software to gain from this shift.

For more Morgan Stanley Research insights and analysis on global travel, ask your Morgan Stanley representative or Financial Advisor for the full reports, “Global Corporate Travel Survey: Snapping Back" (Nov. 8, 2022) and “Global Corporate Travel Survey: 2023 Travel Budgets Nearly Back to 2019 Levels, but ~20% of Meetings Could Still Shift to Virtual” (Nov. 8. 2022). Morgan Stanley Research clients can access the reports directly here and here . Plus more Ideas from Morgan Stanley’s thought leaders.

Sign up to get Morgan Stanley Ideas delivered to your inbox.

*Invalid email address

Thank You for Subscribing!

Would you like to help us improve our coverage of topics that might interest you? Tell us about yourself.

Dividends: A Volatility Shield

Dividend-paying stocks with steady distribution growth can offer outsized contributions to long-term portfolio returns.

Global Outlook: Tech & Beyond

Disruption in connected advertising, a digital-driven economic boom in India and more trends in tech, media and telecom.

Building Credit for Immigrants

Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel present credit solutions for immigrants financially marginalized by America’s credit validation system.

The comeback of corporate travel: How should companies be planning?

It seems that, finally, the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel is in sight—at least in some parts of the world. In 2020, total global business travel expenses contracted by 52 percent, while managed corporate-travel spending in the United States plummeted 71 percent, or $94 billion. Last year, when we reported  on the impact of COVID-19 on corporate travel, we projected that the road to recovery would be a long and uneven one.

Much has changed since then, thanks largely to progress on the vaccination front. Even though there’s much debate  surrounding the timing of herd immunity in the United States, it’s indisputable that vaccination rates are on the rise across the country. At the time of writing, more than 40 percent of the US population has been fully vaccinated , with more than 50 percent having received at least one dose. Companies are starting to bring employees back to offices. Corporate executives are planning in-person meetings and gatherings with customers and colleagues.

In light of new developments, to what extent will videoconferencing replace business trips? How should corporations prepare for the next phase of business travel? While our insights from last year still hold, we’ve sharpened our understanding of how business leaders could be thinking about the postpandemic role of corporate travel. In this article, we identify four categories of business travelers—the “never left,” the “never returning,” the “fear of missing out” (FOMO), and the “wait and see” segments—and provide recommendations for how key players in the corporate-travel ecosystem can make effective plans in this context.

What’s changed: Increased vaccination is expanding flexible work arrangements

The most significant change shaping our thinking about the return of corporate travel is the rising vaccination rates in the United States and Europe. We project that the United States and the United Kingdom will slowly transition toward normalcy in mid-2021, with the rest of the European Union following shortly after (Exhibit 1).

Notwithstanding the risks presented by new virus strains and limited visibility into the duration of vaccine immunity, rising vaccination rates are ameliorating some of the travel anxiety. Many organizations are now proactively figuring out the future of work —which includes the role of business travel.

For many companies, COVID-19 has proven that more workplace flexibility is possible . Around 70 percent of executives said their companies will employ more temporary workers than before the pandemic, and 72 percent of executives report that their companies have started to adopt permanent remote-working arrangements for a subset of their employees. Nearly 40 percent of the workforce in the United States has the potential to work from anywhere. These signals and others suggest that many organizations are reevaluating working and organizational arrangements , including when, why, and how their employees should hit the road.

There’s no consensus, however, among business leaders about what to do with this newfound flexibility, and many organizations have not yet clearly communicated a vision for postpandemic work: around 30 percent of executives in a recent survey  say they have not heard about specific plans for corporate travel after the pandemic, while another 28 percent described their companies’ plans as vague.

Four key segments in the return of corporate travel

Breaking down corporate trips into different segments can help travel planners and suppliers plan for the return of corporate travel. We’ve identified four different business-travel profiles, each sitting at a different point on the travel-resilience spectrum. Three indicators were used to define each archetype and determine its position on the spectrum: sector, travel purpose, and whether the trip was domestic or international. For travel purpose, if in-person interactions remain critical for a company, then the more resilient such business trips are. Some assumptions were made on how likely it was that some forms of corporate travel would recover rather than be substituted by videoconference technology.

The profile mix varies from company to company, and it’s possible for all four to coexist within the same organization, although some might feature more prominently in some companies and less in others.

• The “never left” segment. On one end of the spectrum, employees for whom travel is deemed essential for conducting business resumed their trips as soon as lockdowns eased. This category accounted for around 15 percent of all corporate travel expenses in 2019 and includes managers in manufacturing companies with a wide distribution of factories and plants and field-operation workers. Those who were reluctant to fly opted for rail and private cars instead.
• The “never returning” segment . On the other end, business travelers that contributed to one-fifth of business travel spending in 2019 present an enticing opportunity for corporations to permanently slash their corporate-travel budgets. Digital adopters who are able to maintain high levels of effectiveness while working remotely may never return to corporate travel. Furthermore, advances made in digital technologies that enhance oversight of outposts have paved the way for corporate travel to be further reduced. For instance, many chain restaurants found ways to minimize corporate travel by replacing in-person visits with virtual alternatives, as well as establishing more local oversight systems. They are likely to want to keep these significant cost savings; although a certain number of business trips will continue after the pandemic even in this segment, they will do so at much lower levels than before.
• The “fear of missing out” (FOMO) segment. The bulk of business travel (60 percent of business-travel expenditure in 2019)—which will likely drive the rebound of corporate travel—will be fueled by the FOMO segment: those traveling to cultivate important client relationships. Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) will likely increase corporate travel at much faster rates, as they are not subject to the heightened approval process that large enterprises have to follow. SMEs are likely to trigger a domino effect where one company’s resumption of business trips will catalyze its rivals’ return to work-related travel. Faced with intense competition, different players in the company (leadership, management, staff) coalesce to reinstate corporate travel at scale to seize a first-mover advantage over rival businesses. An April Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) member survey reported that more than 50 percent of respondents are developing or plan to develop a timeline for resuming travel, updated travel policies, or new safety resources and information for travelers.
• The “wait and see” segment. This segment consists of workers in relatively noncompetitive industries and roles; it contributed 5 percent of total business-travel spending in 2019. These corporate travelers tend to come from the public sector, professional associations, and nonprofits. During the pandemic, many professional associations were able to hold virtual events to replace in-person conferences and will likely be more cautious in their return to travel.

Taken together, the trajectories of the four travel categories confirm our earlier projection of an uneven recovery for corporate travel. Overall, we can expect a 20 percent reduction in corporate travel spending by 2023.

In addition, it’s worth noting that even within these segments, business-travel recovery will vary depending on the purpose and distance of the business trips (Exhibit 2). For instance, even for firms in the “never left” segment, overseas travel to attend international conferences has not returned because of government-imposed restrictions due to public-health concerns. Furthermore, given the uneven rollout of COVID-19 vaccines internationally, the return of international travel may be further suspended in regions with limited or delayed access to vaccines due to sustained public-health restrictions and/or disease outbreaks. On the flip side, “never returning” business travelers may still make exceptions for key events that are held regionally.

In the United States, a comparison of a multinational conglomerate’s internal and external travel spend and that of a private health insurer provides an example of how the recovery trajectory may differ from business to business (Exhibit 3). Internal travel encompasses trips taken for intracompany purposes, where employees participate in activities such as training, team building, or inspection of field operations. External travel, on the other hand, refers to trips employees take for engagements outside the company, including in-person meetings with clients and suppliers, trade conferences, and customer sales calls.

The multinational conglomerate we examined, a manufacturer of building products, had a total travel spend in 2019 of around $80 million. As a customer-driven business, the company spends the majority of its travel expenses on external travel. Much of this falls into the FOMO segment, which is already recovering at a faster pace this year relative to internal travel even though the overall travel expenditure remains depressed. The bulk of its internal travel was for the purposes of internal collaboration in 2019, a third of which is expected to be permanently eliminated, while the rest should gradually return over the rest of this year and 2022.

A McKinsey Live event on 'Returning to corporate travel: How do we get it right?'

Approaching the future of corporate travel: Four steps

Charting a safe and effective road map for future corporate travel requires all players to collaborate. Key players in the ecosystem—suppliers (including airlines, hotels, car-rental and rideshare companies), corporate-travel planners, travel intermediaries such as online travel agencies (OTAs), global-distribution-system (GDS) providers, and travelers themselves—need to master four critical skills: leveraging real-time data, planning with agility, aiming for comfort and safety, and communicating with clarity.

Leverage real-time data

Planning for the future can feel like flying through a fog of uncertainty, which makes it even more important for players to leverage real-time data to inform their decision making. Organizations could invest in data capabilities to identify and monitor the first signs of an acceleration in business travel.

Planning for the future can feel like flying through a fog of uncertainty, which makes it even more important for players to leverage real-time data to inform their decision making.

OTAs and GDS providers may be worth exploring as new data sources. Travel intermediaries such as these are uniquely situated to provide aggregate data for each industry. For instance, they can inform a corporate-travel planner how many seats are being booked by the rest of the company’s sector, signaling whether the company is ahead of or behind the curve. Many corporate-travel planners are also concerned about the fluctuations in the cost and availability of tickets, given the volatility of flight schedules during this time. Intermediaries can provide data that suggest which flights are more likely to stay on an airline’s schedule, helping clients build more agility into their decision making. Intermediaries may be able to create a new revenue stream from these data.

Would you like to learn more about our Travel, Logistics & Infrastructure Practice ?

Real-time data also help suppliers of corporate travel, such as air carriers and hotels, become more agile. As corporate travel returns, these suppliers will need to deploy the right resources in real time to match demand, which may shift abruptly. For example, one airline made a costly mistake by being unprepared for the sudden spike in demand for leisure flights over the recent Easter holiday. As recovery will likely be uneven, airlines will have to figure out how to have aircraft, pilots, and crew on standby so they can increase capacity quickly whenever there’s a need. Organizations can meet regularly to discuss data-driven insights and align on next steps.

Embed agility into planning

It pays to have a detailed plan and strategy for different recovery scenarios in place. When demand picks up, many firms may find that they don’t have the time to pause and think through their strategies.

When it comes to organizing business trips for employees, corporate-travel planners will need to take into account four considerations:

• First, the factors that affect whether corporate travel should increase: for example, local and regional infection levels, customer demand, and competitive actions.
• Second, the relevant data sources used to evaluate these factors: these could include public-health indicators, customer surveys, data from travel partners on industry trends and competitor behavior, and real-time pricing from GDSs consistent with typical corporate agreements, even as airline-fare classes go through realignments.
• Third, company policies on business travel: What distance-based policies should staff adhere to? Should they use rental cars, rideshares, taxis, or flights? When should they wear masks or engage in group gatherings? How (and should) companies distinguish between what activities vaccinated and unvaccinated employees can participate in?
• Fourth, information needed by travelers: this includes websites, travel help desks, and messaging.

A US health-products wholesaler and manufacturer provides an example of how these considerations work together. Currently, the company’s factories are open, while corporate offices remain closed and corporate travel is at a standstill. The company recently decided to stage-gate the resumption of corporate travel, starting with executives. Critical sales meetings and conferences will be in the next wave of business trips, followed by general sales and internal corporate activities, and finally, internal training and events. The level of corporate travel varies by state, based on local infection and vaccination rates. The company also set up tracking codes in its customer-relationship-management system to monitor when sales are won or lost due to competitive travel, which involved working with its corporate travel agent to get data on corporate-travel bookings.

The company instituted different policies for each level, including when masks must be worn, the permitted group size for indoor gatherings, and what lodging choices should be made (for example, home shares are avoided for safety and sanitation reasons). The company is developing internal brochures and a communications plan to keep its employees informed.

Personalize experiences based on safety and comfort

Safety and comfort are crucial elements in the travel experience, and they can sometimes pull in opposite directions. More can be done to bridge this gap. Both employers and travel companies could find ways to give passengers peace of mind and improve comfort and convenience. The guiding principle here is giving the traveler greater control over decisions that affect their sense of comfort and security.

For instance, airlines can personalize flight experiences by improving the functionality of their mobile apps to allow passengers to preorder their meals and snacks or make special requests. Hotels may let guests decide on the frequency and timing of housekeeping. They might consider offering initiatives that improve guests’ physical and mental well-being, for example, by offering virtual trainers to guide meditation or fitness practices. Suppliers could also consider offering radically transparent flexibility policies and allow customers a greater range of options with different associated fees for cancellations and changes.

Communicate with clarity

Even the most seasoned travelers have to accept that traveling has changed. Masks have become ubiquitous, and border restrictions, boarding procedures, and hygiene requirements seem to be ever changing. It’s critical that organizations communicate clearly what their corporate-travel policies are at any given moment in time, for every stage of the journey—from pre- to post-trip.

It helps for organizations to be extra proactive in communicating any type of change, whether regarding company-wide strategic policies or more granular details such as the company’s preferred rideshare or car-rental options for corporate travel. When changes in operations are made, companies can take special care to ensure the availability of amenities. Leadership can play a prominent role in modeling how to travel in this new reality by clearly reiterating company policies. Information websites, travel help desks, and easily digestible infographics could all be used to get the message across. Keep channels of communication open and allow employees to give feedback and raise concerns as and when they arise.

Employees, too, will go through an adjustment period as they resume their business trips. Leadership can communicate that it’s OK for them to take it slowly and that they should raise concerns if they ever feel unsafe.

Some corporate travelers will find they have to adapt quickly to the many changes in business travel, while others will have the luxury of easing themselves in over a longer period. Unpredictability will continue to be a fact of life, but one thing is certain: if everyone plays their part well (and smartly, by leveraging the technologies and processes at our disposal), the resumption of corporate travel is possible.

Jenna Benefield is a consultant in McKinsey’s Philadelphia office, Vik Krishnan is a partner in the San Francisco office, Esteban Ramirez is the capabilities and insights team leader in the San Jose office, and Matthew Straus is an associate partner in the Chicago office.

The authors wish to thank Guenter Fuchs, Jennifer Heller, and Jillian Tellez for their contributions to this article.

This article was edited by Jason Li, a senior editor in the Shanghai office.

Explore a career with us

Related articles.

The travel industry turned upside down: Insights, analysis, and actions for travel executives

For corporate travel, a long recovery ahead

Corporate travel: The long road to recovery

7 Key Trends That Will Define Corporate Travel & Expense in 2022

Free insights deck: a new phase for travel and expense management.

While 2021 has been another unique year for business travel, robust industry momentum is pointing to a strong recovery in 2022. Skift and TripActions present this new insights deck exploring the state of corporate travel and expense as companies embark on new journeys ahead in 2022.

Much has changed, of course, and the question remains: How will corporate travel managers and business travelers work together to achieve these goals in a world of rapidly evolving policies and regulations?

In this report:

• Several key factors are driving optimism about business travel in 2022, including new dynamics and formats for meetings and events, as well as the hybridization of the workplace and workforce.
• Covid-19 put corporate duty of care obligations in an acute new spotlight, and companies must enact and communicate new policies to support employees in the post-pandemic environment.
• Corporate travel agencies and other travel platforms need to stay nimble ahead of Covid-19 and future challenges, while solving for misalignments in new line items like remote work expenses and broader employee benefits.
• Travel and expense management platforms must enable a more strategic view of how business travel fits into an organization’s broader financial goals. That’s why many companies are now looking for all-in-one solutions that provide up-to-date information around travel restrictions and safety, as well as real-time data around spending.

Sponsored by

Want more? Check out these other reports that you might be interested in:

Send me the report.

Everything You Need to Know About the Business Travel Tax Deduction

Justin is an IRS Enrolled Agent, allowing him to represent taxpayers before the IRS. He loves helping freelancers and small business owners save on taxes. He is also an attorney and works part-time with the Keeper Tax team.

You don’t have to fly first class and stay at a fancy hotel to claim travel expense tax deductions. Conferences, worksite visits, and even a change of scenery can (sometimes) qualify as business travel.

What counts as business travel?

The IRS does have a few simple guidelines for determining what counts as business travel. Your trip has to be:

• Mostly business
• An “ordinary and necessary” expense
• Someplace far away from your “tax home”

What counts as "mostly business"?

The IRS will measure your time away in days. If you spend more days doing business activities than not, your trip is considered "mostly business". Your travel days are counted as work days.

Special rules for traveling abroad

If you are traveling abroad for business purposes, you trip counts as " entirely for business " as long as you spend less than 25% of your time on personal activities (like vacationing). Your travel days count as work days.

So say you you head off to Zurich for nine days. You've got a seven-day run of conference talks, client meetings, and the travel it takes to get you there. You then tack on two days skiing on the nearby slopes.

Good news: Your trip still counts as "entirely for business." That's because two out of nine days is less than 25%.

What is an “ordinary and necessary” expense?

“Ordinary and necessary” means that the trip:

• Makes sense given your industry, and
• Was taken for the purpose of carrying out business activities

If you have a choice between two conferences — one in your hometown, and one in London — the British one wouldn’t be an ordinary and necessary expense.

What is your tax home?

A taxpayer can deduct travel expenses anytime you are traveling away from home but depending on where you work the IRS definition of “home” can get complicated.

Your tax home is often — but not always — where you live with your family (what the IRS calls your "family home"). When it comes to defining it, there are two factors to consider:

• What's your main place of business, and
• How large is your tax home

What's your main place of business?

If your main place of business is somewhere other than your family home, your tax home will be the former — where you work, not where your family lives.

For example, say you:

• Live with your family in Chicago, but
• Work in Milwaukee during the week (where you stay in hotels and eat in restaurants)

Then your tax home is Milwaukee. That's your main place of business, even if you travel back to your family home every weekend.

How large is your tax home?

In most cases, your tax home is the entire city or general area where your main place of business is located.

The “entire city” is easy to define but “general area” gets a bit tricker. For example, if you live in a rural area, then your general area may span several counties during a regular work week.

Rules for business travel

Want to check if your trip is tax-deductible? Make sure it follows these rules set by the IRS.

1. Your trip should take you away from your home base

A good rule of thumb is 100 miles. That’s about a two hour drive, or any kind of plane ride. To be able to claim all the possible travel deductions, your trip should require you to sleep somewhere that isn’t your home.

2. You should be working regular hours

In general, that means eight hours a day of work-related activity.

It’s fine to take personal time in the evenings, and you can still take weekends off. But you can’t take a half-hour call from Disneyland and call it a business trip.

Here's an example. Let’s say you’re a real estate agent living in Chicago. You travel to an industry conference in Las Vegas. You go to the conference during the day, go out in the evenings, and then stay the weekend. That’s a business trip!

3. The trip should last less than a year

Once you’ve been somewhere for over a year, you’re essentially living there. However, traveling for six months at a time is fine!

For example, say you’re a freelancer on Upwork, living in Seattle. You go down to stay with your sister in San Diego for the winter to expand your client network, and you work regular hours while you’re there. That counts as business travel.

What about digital nomads?

With the rise of remote-first workplaces, many freelancers choose to take their work with them as they travel the globe. There are a couple of requirements these expats have to meet if they want to write off travel costs.

Requirement #1: A tax home

Digital nomads have to be able to claim a particular foreign city as a tax home if they want to write off any travel expenses. You don't have to be there all the time — but it should be your professional home base when you're abroad.

For example, say you've rent a room or a studio apartment in Prague for the year. You regularly call clients and finish projects from there. You still travel a lot, for both work and play. But Prague is your tax home, so you can write off travel expenses.

Requirement #2: Some work-related reason for traveling

As long as you've got a tax home and some work-related reason for traveling, these excursion count as business trips. Plausible reasons include meeting with local clients, or attending a local conference and then extending your stay.

However, if you’re a freelance software developer working from Thailand because you like the weather, that unfortunately doesn't count as business travel.

The travel expenses you can write off

As a rule of thumb, all travel-related expenses on a business trip are tax-deductible. You can also claim meals while traveling, but be careful with entertainment expenses (like going out for drinks!).

Here are some common travel-related write-offs you can take.

🛫 All transportation

Any transportation costs are a travel tax deduction. This includes traveling by airplane, train, bus, or car. Baggage fees are deductible, and so are Uber rides to and from the airport.

Just remember: if a client is comping your airfare, or if you booked your ticket with frequent flier miles, then it isn't deductible since your cost was $0.

If you rent a car to go on a business trip, that rental is tax-deductible. If you drive your own vehicle, you can either take actual costs or use the standard mileage deduction. There's more info on that in our guide to deducting car expenses .

Hotels, motels, Airbnb stays, sublets on Craigslist, even reimbursing a friend for crashing on their couch: all of these are tax-deductible lodging expenses.

🥡 Meals while traveling

If your trip has you staying overnight — or even crashing somewhere for a few hours before you can head back — you can write off food expenses. Grabbing a burger alone or a coffee at your airport terminal counts! Even groceries and takeout are tax-deductible.

One important thing to keep in mind: You can usually deduct 50% of your meal costs. For 2021 and 2022, meals you get at restaurants are 100% tax-deductible. Go to the grocery store, though, and you’re limited to the usual 50%.

{upsell_block}

🌐 Wi-Fi and communications

Wi-Fi — on a plane or at your hotel — is completely deductible when you’re traveling for work. This also goes for other communication expenses, like hotspots and international calls.

If you need to ship things as part of your trip — think conference booth materials or extra clothes — those expenses are also tax-deductible.

👔 Dry cleaning

Need to look your best on the trip? You can write off related expenses, like laundry charges.

{write_off_block}

Travel expenses you can't deduct

Some travel costs may seem like no-brainers, but they're not actually tax-deductible. Here are a couple of common ones to watch our for.

The cost of bringing your child or spouse

If you bring your child or spouse on a business trip, your travel expense deductions get a little trickier. In general, the cost of bring other people on a business trip is considered personal expense — which means it's not deductible.

You can only deduct travel expenses if your child or spouse:

• Is an employee,
• Has a bona fide business purpose for traveling with you, and
• Would otherwise be allowed to deduct the travel expense on their own

Some hotel bill charges

Staying in a hotel may be required for travel purposes. That's why the room charge and taxes are deductible.

Some additional charges, though, won't qualify. Here are some examples of fees that aren't tax-deductible:

• Gym or fitness center fees
• Movie rental fees
• Game rental fees

{email_capture}

Where to claim travel expenses when filing your taxes

If you are self-employed, you will claim all your income tax deduction on the Schedule C. This is part of the Form 1040 that self-employed people complete ever year.

What happens if your business deductions are disallowed?

If the IRS challenges your business deduction and they are disallowed, there are potential penalties. This can happen if:

• The deduction was not legitimate and shouldn't have been claimed in the first place, or
• The deduction was legitimate, but you don't have the documentation to support it

When does the penalty come into play?

The 20% penalty is not automatic. It only applies if it allowed you to pay substantially less taxes than you normally would. In most cases, the IRS considers “substantially less” to mean you paid at least 10% less.

In practice, you would only reach this 10% threshold if the IRS disqualified a significant number of your travel deductions.

How much is the penalty?

The penalty is normally 20% of the difference between what you should have paid and what you actually paid. You also have to make up the original difference.

In total, this means you will be paying 120% of your original tax obligation: your original obligation, plus 20% penalty.

Justin W. Jones, EA, JD

Over 1M freelancers trust Keeper with their taxes

Keeper is the top-rated all-in-one business expense tracker, tax filing service, and personal accountant.

Sign up for Tax University

Get the tax info they should have taught us in school

Expense tracking has never been easier

What tax write-offs can I claim?

At Keeper, we’re on a mission to help people overcome the complexity of taxes. We’ve provided this information for educational purposes, and it does not constitute tax, legal, or accounting advice. If you would like a tax expert to clarify it for you, feel free to sign up for Keeper. You may also email [email protected] with your questions.

Voted best tax app for freelancers

More Articles to Read

Free Tax Tools

1099 Tax Calculator

• Quarterly Tax Calculator

How Much Should I Set Aside for 1099 Taxes?

Keeper users have found write-offs worth

• Affiliate program
• Partnership program
• Tax bill calculator
• Tax rate calculator
• Tax deduction finder
• Quarterly tax calculator
• Ask an accountant
• Terms of Service
• Privacy Policy
• Affiliate Program
• Partnership Program
• Tax Bill Calculator
• Tax Rate Calculator
• Tax Deduction Finder
• Ask an Accountant

Still need to file? An expert can help or do taxes for you with 100% accuracy. Get started

Tax Deductions for Business Travelers

When you are self-employed, you generally can deduct the ordinary and necessary expenses of traveling away from home for business from your income. But before you start listing travel deductions, make sure you understand what the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) means by "home," "business," and "ordinary and necessary expenses."

Ordinary vs. necessary expenses

Business home, not home sweet home, transportation expenses on a business trip are deductible, fees for getting around are deductible, lodging, meals and tips are deductible.

Key Takeaways

• Typically, you can deduct travel expenses if they are ordinary (common and accepted in your industry) and necessary (helpful and appropriate for your business).
• You can deduct business travel expenses when you are away from both your home and the location of your main place of business (tax home).
• Deductible expenses include transportation, baggage fees, car rentals, taxis and shuttles, lodging, tips, and fees.
• You can also deduct 50% of either the actual cost of meals or the standard meal allowance, which is based on the federal meals and incidental expense per diem rate.

The IRS defines expense ordinary and necessary expenses this way:

• An expense is ordinary if it is common and accepted in your industry
• An expense is necessary if it is helpful and appropriate for your business

You can claim business travel expenses when you're away from home but "home" doesn't always mean where your family lives. You also have a tax home—the city where your main place of business is located—which may not be the same as the location of your family home.

For example, if you live in Petaluma, California but your permanent work location is in San Jose where you stay in hotels and eat out during the work week, you typically can't deduct your expenses in San Jose or your transportation home on weekends.

• In this situation San Jose is your tax home , so no deductions are permitted for ordinary and necessary expenses there.
• Your trips to your home in Petaluma are not mandated by business.

Go by plane, train or bus—the actual cost of the ticket to ride is deductible, as well as any baggage fees. If you have to pay top dollar for a last-minute flight, the high-priced ticket is a business expense, but if you use frequent-flyer miles for a free ticket, the deduction is zero.

If you decide to rent a car to go on a business trip, the car rental is deductible. If you drive your own vehicle, you can usually take actual costs or the IRS standard mileage rate. For 2023 the rate is 65.5 cents per mile. You also can add tolls and parking costs onto your deduction. This amount increases to 67 cents per mile for 2024.

TurboTax Tip: Even if you use the federal meals and incidental expense per diem rates to calculate your deductions, be sure to keep receipts from all your meals and incidental expenses.

Fares for taxis or shuttles can be deducted as business travel expenses. For example, you can deduct the fare or other costs to go to:

• Airport or train station
• Hotel from the airport or train station
• Between your hotel and the work location
• Between clients in the area

If you rent a car when you arrive at your destination, the expense is deductible as long as the car is used exclusively for business. If you use it both for business and personal purposes, you can only deduct the portion of the rental used for business.

The IRS allows business travelers to deduct business-related meals and hotel costs, as long as they are reasonable considering the circumstances—not lavish or extravagant.

You would have to eat if you were home, so this might explain why the IRS limits meal deductions to 50% of either the:

• Actual cost of the meal
• Standard meal allowance

This allowance is based on the federal meals and incidental expense per diem rate that depends on where and when you travel.

Generally, you can deduct 50% of the cost of meals. Alternatively, if you do not incur any meal expenses nor claim the standard meal allowance, you can deduct the amount of $5 per day for incidental expenses. You can also deduct incidental expenses, such as:

• Fees and tips given to hotel staff
• Fees for porters and baggage carriers

But don't forget to keep track of the actual costs.

Let a local tax expert matched to your unique situation get your taxes done 100% right with TurboTax Live Full Service . Your expert will uncover industry-specific deductions for more tax breaks and file your taxes for you. Backed by our Full Service Guarantee . You can also file taxes on your own with TurboTax Premium . We’ll search over 500 deductions and credits so you don’t miss a thing.

Get unlimited advice, an expert final review and your maximum refund, guaranteed .

~37% of taxpayers qualify.  Form 1040 + limited credits only .

Looking for more information?

Related articles, more in jobs and career.

The above article is intended to provide generalized financial information designed to educate a broad segment of the public; it does not give personalized tax, investment, legal, or other business and professional advice. Before taking any action, you should always seek the assistance of a professional who knows your particular situation for advice on taxes, your investments, the law, or any other business and professional matters that affect you and/or your business.

TaxCaster Tax Calculator

Estimate your tax refund and where you stand

I’m a TurboTax customer

I’m a new user

Tax Bracket Calculator

Easily calculate your tax rate to make smart financial decisions

Get started

W-4 Withholding Calculator

Know how much to withhold from your paycheck to get a bigger refund

Self-Employed Tax Calculator

Estimate your self-employment tax and eliminate any surprises

Crypto Calculator

Estimate capital gains, losses, and taxes for cryptocurrency sales

Self-Employed Tax Deductions Calculator

Find deductions as a 1099 contractor, freelancer, creator, or if you have a side gig

ItsDeductible™

See how much your charitable donations are worth

Read why our customers love Intuit TurboTax

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars by our customers.

(153819 reviews of TurboTax Online)

Star ratings are from 2023

Your security. Built into everything we do.

File faster and easier with the free turbotax app.

TurboTax Online: Important Details about Filing Form 1040 Returns with Limited Credits

A Form 1040 return with limited credits is one that's filed using IRS Form 1040 only (with the exception of the specific covered situations described below). Roughly 37% of taxpayers are eligible. If you have a Form 1040 return and are claiming limited credits only, you can file for free yourself with TurboTax Free Edition, or you can file with TurboTax Live Assisted Basic or TurboTax Full Service at the listed price.

Situations covered (assuming no added tax complexity):

• Interest or dividends (1099-INT/1099-DIV) that don’t require filing a Schedule B
• IRS standard deduction
• Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
• Child Tax Credit (CTC)
• Student loan interest deduction

Situations not covered:

• Itemized deductions claimed on Schedule A
• Unemployment income reported on a 1099-G
• Business or 1099-NEC income
• Stock sales (including crypto investments)
• Rental property income
• Credits, deductions and income reported on other forms or schedules 

* More important offer details and disclosures

Turbotax online guarantees.

TurboTax Individual Returns:

• 100% Accurate Calculations Guarantee – Individual Returns: If you pay an IRS or state penalty or interest because of a TurboTax calculation error, we'll pay you the penalty and interest. Excludes payment plans. This guarantee is good for the lifetime of your personal, individual tax return, which Intuit defines as seven years from the date you filed it with TurboTax. Excludes TurboTax Business returns. Additional terms and limitations apply. See Terms of Service for details.
• Maximum Refund Guarantee / Maximum Tax Savings Guarantee - or Your Money Back – Individual Returns: If you get a larger refund or smaller tax due from another tax preparation method by filing an amended return, we'll refund the applicable TurboTax federal and/or state purchase price paid. (TurboTax Free Edition customers are entitled to payment of $30.) This guarantee is good for the lifetime of your personal, individual tax return, which Intuit defines as seven years from the date you filed it with TurboTax. Excludes TurboTax Business returns. Additional terms and limitations apply. See Terms of Service  for details.
• Audit Support Guarantee – Individual Returns: If you receive an audit letter from the IRS or State Department of Revenue based on your 2023 TurboTax individual tax return, we will provide one-on-one question-and-answer support with a tax professional, if requested through our Audit Report Center , for audited individual returns filed with TurboTax for the current 2023 tax year and for individual, non-business returns for the past two tax years (2022, 2021). Audit support is informational only. We will not represent you before the IRS or state tax authority or provide legal advice. If we are not able to connect you to one of our tax professionals, we will refund the applicable TurboTax federal and/or state purchase price paid. (TurboTax Free Edition customers are entitled to payment of $30.) This guarantee is good for the lifetime of your personal, individual tax return, which Intuit defines as seven years from the date you filed it with TurboTax. Excludes TurboTax Business returns. Additional terms and limitations apply. See Terms of Service for details.
• Satisfaction Guaranteed: You may use TurboTax Online without charge up to the point you decide to print or electronically file your tax return. Printing or electronically filing your return reflects your satisfaction with TurboTax Online, at which time you will be required to pay or register for the product.
• Our TurboTax Live Full Service Guarantee means your tax expert will find every dollar you deserve. Your expert will only sign and file your return if they believe it's 100% correct and you are getting your best outcome possible. If you get a larger refund or smaller tax due from another tax preparer, we'll refund the applicable TurboTax Live Full Service federal and/or state purchase price paid. If you pay an IRS or state penalty (or interest) because of an error that a TurboTax tax expert or CPA made while acting as a signed preparer for your return, we'll pay you the penalty and interest. Limitations apply. See Terms of Service  for details.
• 100% Accurate Expert-Approved Guarantee: If you pay an IRS or state penalty (or interest) because of an error that a TurboTax tax expert or CPA made while providing topic-specific tax advice, a section review, or acting as a signed preparer for your return, we'll pay you the penalty and interest. Limitations apply. See Terms of Service  for details.

TurboTax Business Returns:

• 100% Accurate Calculations Guarantee – Business Returns. If you pay an IRS or state penalty or interest because of a TurboTax calculation error, we'll pay you the penalty and interest. Excludes payment plans. You are responsible for paying any additional tax liability you may owe. Additional terms and limitations apply. See Terms of Service for details.
• TurboTax Audit Support Guarantee – Business Returns. If you receive an audit letter from the IRS or State Department of Revenue on your 2023 TurboTax business return, we will provide one-on-one question-and-answer support with a tax professional, if requested through our Audit Report Center , for audited business returns filed with TurboTax for the current 2023 tax year. Audit support is informational only. We will not represent you before the IRS or state tax authority or provide legal advice. If we are not able to connect you to one of our tax professionals for this question-and-answer support, we will refund the applicable TurboTax Live Business or TurboTax Live Full Service Business federal and/or state purchase price paid. Additional terms and limitations apply. See Terms of Service for details.

TURBOTAX ONLINE/MOBILE PRICING:

• Start for Free/Pay When You File: TurboTax online and mobile pricing is based on your tax situation and varies by product. For most paid TurboTax online and mobile offerings, you may start using the tax preparation features without paying upfront, and pay only when you are ready to file or purchase add-on products or services. Actual prices for paid versions are determined based on the version you use and the time of print or e-file and are subject to change without notice. Special discount offers may not be valid for mobile in-app purchases. Strikethrough prices reflect anticipated final prices for tax year 2023.
• TurboTax Free Edition: TurboTax Free Edition ($0 Federal + $0 State + $0 To File) is available for those filing Form 1040 and limited credits only, as detailed in the TurboTax Free Edition disclosures. Roughly 37% of taxpayers qualify. Offer may change or end at any time without notice.
• TurboTax Live Assisted Basic Offer: Offer only available with TurboTax Live Assisted Basic and for those filing Form 1040 and limited credits only. Roughly 37% of taxpayers qualify. Must file between November 29, 2023 and March 31, 2024 to be eligible for the offer. Includes state(s) and one (1) federal tax filing. Intuit reserves the right to modify or terminate this TurboTax Live Assisted Basic Offer at any time for any reason in its sole and absolute discretion. If you add services, your service fees will be adjusted accordingly. If you file after 11:59pm EST, March 31, 2024, you will be charged the then-current list price for TurboTax Live Assisted Basic and state tax filing is an additional fee. See current prices here.
• Full Service $100 Back Offer: Credit applies only to federal filing fees for TurboTax Full Service and not returns filed using other TurboTax products or returns filed by Intuit TurboTax Verified Pros. Excludes TurboTax Live Full Service Business and TurboTax Canada products . Credit does not apply to state tax filing fees or other additional services. If federal filing fees are less than $100, the remaining credit will be provided via electronic gift card. Intuit reserves the right to modify or terminate this offer at any time for any reason in its sole discretion. Must file by April 15, 2024 11:59 PM ET.
• TurboTax Full Service - Forms-Based Pricing: “Starting at” pricing represents the base price for one federal return (includes one W-2 and one Form 1040). Final price may vary based on your actual tax situation and forms used or included with your return. Price estimates are provided prior to a tax expert starting work on your taxes. Estimates are based on initial information you provide about your tax situation, including forms you upload to assist your expert in preparing your tax return and forms or schedules we think you’ll need to file based on what you tell us about your tax situation. Final price is determined at the time of print or electronic filing and may vary based on your actual tax situation, forms used to prepare your return, and forms or schedules included in your individual return. Prices are subject to change without notice and may impact your final price. If you decide to leave Full Service and work with an independent Intuit TurboTax Verified Pro, your Pro will provide information about their individual pricing and a separate estimate when you connect with them.
• Pays for itself (TurboTax Premium, formerly Self-Employed): Estimates based on deductible business expenses calculated at the self-employment tax income rate (15.3%) for tax year 2022. Actual results will vary based on your tax situation.

TURBOTAX ONLINE/MOBILE:

• Anytime, anywhere: Internet access required; standard data rates apply to download and use mobile app.
• Fastest refund possible: Fastest tax refund with e-file and direct deposit; tax refund time frames will vary. The IRS issues more than 9 out of 10 refunds in less than 21 days.
• Get your tax refund up to 5 days early: Individual taxes only. When it’s time to file, have your tax refund direct deposited with Credit Karma Money™, and you could receive your funds up to 5 days early. If you choose to pay your tax preparation fee with TurboTax using your federal tax refund or if you choose to take the Refund Advance loan, you will not be eligible to receive your refund up to 5 days early. 5-day early program may change or discontinue at any time. Up to 5 days early access to your federal tax refund is compared to standard tax refund electronic deposit and is dependent on and subject to IRS submitting refund information to the bank before release date. IRS may not submit refund information early.
• For Credit Karma Money (checking account): Banking services provided by MVB Bank, Inc., Member FDIC. Maximum balance and transfer limits apply per account.
• Fees: Third-party fees may apply. Please see Credit Karma Money Account Terms & Disclosures for more information.
• Pay for TurboTax out of your federal refund or state refund (if applicable): Individual taxes only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Additional terms apply. A $40 Refund Processing Service fee may apply to this payment method. Prices are subject to change without notice.
• TurboTax Help and Support: Access to a TurboTax product specialist is included with TurboTax Deluxe, Premium, TurboTax Live Assisted and TurboTax Live Full Service; not included with Free Edition (but is available as an upgrade). TurboTax specialists are available to provide general customer help and support using the TurboTax product. Services, areas of expertise, experience levels, wait times, hours of operation and availability vary, and are subject to restriction and change without notice. Limitations apply See Terms of Service   for details.
• Tax Advice, Expert Review and TurboTax Live: Access to tax advice and Expert Review (the ability to have a Tax Expert review and/or sign your tax return) is included with TurboTax Live Assisted or as an upgrade from another version, and available through December 31, 2024. Intuit will assign you a tax expert based on availability. Tax expert and CPA availability may be limited. Some tax topics or situations may not be included as part of this service, which shall be determined in the tax expert’s sole discretion. For the TurboTax Live Assisted product, if your return requires a significant level of tax advice or actual preparation, the tax expert may be required to sign as the preparer at which point they will assume primary responsibility for the preparation of your return. For the TurboTax Live Full Service product: Handoff tax preparation by uploading your tax documents, getting matched with an expert, and meeting with an expert in real time. The tax expert will sign your return as a preparer. The ability to retain the same expert preparer in subsequent years will be based on an expert’s choice to continue employment with Intuit. Administrative services may be provided by assistants to the tax expert. On-screen help is available on a desktop, laptop or the TurboTax mobile app. Unlimited access to TurboTax Live tax experts refers to an unlimited quantity of contacts available to each customer, but does not refer to hours of operation or service coverage. Service, area of expertise, experience levels, wait times, hours of operation and availability vary, and are subject to restriction and change without notice.
• TurboTax Live Full Service – Qualification for Offer: Depending on your tax situation, you may be asked to answer additional questions to determine your qualification for the Full Service offer. Certain complicated tax situations will require an additional fee, and some will not qualify for the Full Service offering. These situations may include but are not limited to multiple sources of business income, large amounts of cryptocurrency transactions, taxable foreign assets and/or significant foreign investment income. Offer details subject to change at any time without notice. Intuit, in its sole discretion and at any time, may determine that certain tax topics, forms and/or situations are not included as part of TurboTax Live Full Service. Intuit reserves the right to refuse to prepare a tax return for any reason in its sole discretion. Additional limitations apply. See Terms of Service  for details.
• TurboTax Live Full Service - File your taxes as soon as today: TurboTax Full Service Experts are available to prepare 2023 tax returns starting January 8, 2024. Based on completion time for the majority of customers and may vary based on expert availability. The tax preparation assistant will validate the customer’s tax situation during the welcome call and review uploaded documents to assess readiness. All tax forms and documents must be ready and uploaded by the customer for the tax preparation assistant to refer the customer to an available expert for live tax preparation.
• TurboTax Live Full Service -- Verified Pro -- “Local” and “In-Person”: Not all feature combinations are available for all locations. "Local" experts are defined as being located within the same state as the consumer’s zip code for virtual meetings. "Local" Pros for the purpose of in-person meetings are defined as being located within 50 miles of the consumer's zip code. In-person meetings with local Pros are available on a limited basis in some locations, but not available in all States or locations. Not all pros provide in-person services.
• Smart Insights: Individual taxes only. Included with TurboTax Deluxe, Premium, TurboTax Live, TurboTax Live Full Service, or with PLUS benefits, and is available through 11/1/2024. Terms and conditions may vary and are subject to change without notice.
• My Docs features: Included with TurboTax Deluxe, Premium TurboTax Live, TurboTax Live Full Service, or with PLUS benefits and is available through 12/31/2024. Terms and conditions may vary and are subject to change without notice.
• Tax Return Access: Included with all TurboTax Free Edition, Deluxe, Premium, TurboTax Live, TurboTax Live Full Service customers and access to up to the prior seven years of tax returns we have on file for you is available through 12/31/2024. Terms and conditions may vary and are subject to change without notice.
• Easy Online Amend: Individual taxes only. Included with TurboTax Deluxe, Premium, TurboTax Live, TurboTax Live Full Service, or with PLUS benefits. Make changes to your 2023 tax return online for up to 3 years after it has been filed and accepted by the IRS through 10/31/2026. Terms and conditions may vary and are subject to change without notice. For TurboTax Live Full Service, your tax expert will amend your 2023 tax return for you through 11/15/2024. After 11/15/2024, TurboTax Live Full Service customers will be able to amend their 2023 tax return themselves using the Easy Online Amend process described above.
• #1 best-selling tax software: Based on aggregated sales data for all tax year 2022 TurboTax products.
• #1 online tax filing solution for self-employed: Based upon IRS Sole Proprietor data as of 2023, tax year 2022. Self-Employed defined as a return with a Schedule C tax form. Online competitor data is extrapolated from press releases and SEC filings. “Online” is defined as an individual income tax DIY return (non-preparer signed) that was prepared online & either e-filed or printed, not including returns prepared through desktop software or FFA prepared returns, 2022.
• CompleteCheck: Covered under the TurboTax accurate calculations and maximum refund guarantees . Limitations apply. See Terms of Service   for details.
• TurboTax Premium Pricing Comparison: Cost savings based on a comparison of TurboTax product prices to average prices set forth in the 2020-2021 NSA Fees-Acct-Tax Practices Survey Report.
• 1099-K Snap and Autofill: Available in mobile app and mobile web only.
• 1099-NEC Snap and Autofill: Available in TurboTax Premium (formerly Self-Employed) and TurboTax Live Assisted Premium (formerly Self-Employed). Available in mobile app only. Feature available within Schedule C tax form for TurboTax filers with 1099-NEC income.
• Year-Round Tax Estimator: Available in TurboTax Premium (formerly Self-Employed) and TurboTax Live Assisted Premium (formerly Self-Employed). This product feature is only available after you finish and file in a self-employed TurboTax product.
• **Refer a Friend: Rewards good for up to 20 friends, or $500 - see official terms and conditions for more details.
• Refer your Expert (Intuit’s own experts): Rewards good for up to 20 referrals, or $500 - see official terms and conditions for more details.
• Refer your Expert (TurboTax Verified Independent Pro): Rewards good for up to 20 referrals, or $500 - see official terms and conditions for more details
• Average Refund Amount: Sum of $3140 is the average refund American taxpayers received based upon IRS data date ending 2/17/23 and may not reflect actual refund amount received.
• Average Deduction Amount: Based on the average amount of deductions/expenses found by TurboTax Self Employed customers who filed expenses on Schedule C in Tax Year 2022 and may not reflect actual deductions found.
• More self-employed deductions based on the median amount of expenses found by TurboTax Premium (formerly Self Employed) customers who synced accounts, imported and categorized transactions compared to manual entry. Individual results may vary.
• TurboTax Online Business Products: For TurboTax Live Assisted Business and TurboTax Full Service Business, we currently don’t support the following tax situations: C-Corps (Form 1120-C), Trust/Estates (Form 1041), Multiple state filings, Tax Exempt Entities/Non-Profits, Entities electing to be treated as a C-Corp, Schedule C Sole proprietorship, Payroll, Sales tax, Quarterly filings, and Foreign Income. TurboTax Live Assisted Business is currently available only in AK, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, MI, MO, NC, NV, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, VA, WA, and WY.
• Audit Defense: Audit Defense is a third-party add-on service provided, for a fee, by TaxResources, Inc., dba Tax Audit. See Membership Agreements at https://turbotax.intuit.com/corp/softwarelicense/ for service terms and conditions. 

TURBOTAX DESKTOP GUARANTEES

TurboTax Desktop Individual Returns:

• 100% Accurate Calculations Guarantee – Individual Returns: If you pay an IRS or state penalty or interest because of a TurboTax calculation error, we’ll pay you the penalty and interest. Excludes payment plans. This guarantee is good for the lifetime of your personal, individual tax return, which Intuit defines as seven years from the date you filed it with TurboTax Desktop. Excludes TurboTax Desktop Business returns. Additional terms and limitations apply. See License Agreement for details.
• Maximum Refund Guarantee / Maximum Tax Savings Guarantee - or Your Money Back – Individual Returns: If you get a larger refund or smaller tax due from another tax preparation method by filing an amended return, we'll refund the applicable TurboTax federal and/or state software license purchase price you paid. This guarantee is good for the lifetime of your personal, individual tax return, which Intuit defines as seven years from the date you filed it with TurboTax Desktop. Excludes TurboTax Desktop Business returns. Additional terms and limitations apply. See License Agreement for details.
• Audit Support Guarantee – Individual Returns: If you receive an audit letter from the IRS or State Department of Revenue based on your 2023 TurboTax individual tax return, we will provide one-on-one question-and-answer support with a tax professional, if requested through our Audit Report Center , for audited individual returns filed with TurboTax Desktop for the current 2023 tax year and, for individual, non-business returns, for the past two tax years (2021, 2022). Audit support is informational only. We will not represent you before the IRS or state tax authority or provide legal advice. If we are not able to connect you to one of our tax professionals, we will refund the applicable TurboTax federal and/or state license purchase price you paid. This guarantee is good for the lifetime of your personal, individual tax return, which Intuit defines as seven years from the date you filed it with TurboTax Desktop. Excludes TurboTax Desktop Business returns. Additional terms and limitations apply. See License Agreement for details.
• Satisfaction Guarantee/ 60-Day Money Back Guarantee: If you're not completely satisfied with TurboTax Desktop, go to refundrequest.intuit.com within 60 days of purchase and follow the process listed to submit a refund request. You must return this product using your license code or order number and dated receipt.

TurboTax Desktop Business Returns:

• 100% Accurate Calculations Guarantee – Business Returns: If you pay an IRS or state penalty or interest because of a TurboTax calculation error, we’ll pay you the penalty and interest. Excludes payment plans. You are responsible for paying any additional tax liability you may owe. Additional terms and limitations apply. See License Agreement for details.
• Maximum Tax Savings Guarantee – Business Returns: If you get a smaller tax due (or larger business tax refund) from another tax preparation method using the same data, TurboTax will refund the applicable TurboTax Business Desktop license purchase price you paid. Additional terms and limitations apply. See License Agreement for details.

TURBOTAX DESKTOP

• Installation Requirements: Product download, installation and activation requires an Intuit Account and internet connection. Product limited to one account per license code. You must accept the TurboTax License Agreement to use this product. Not for use by paid preparers.
• TurboTax Desktop Products: Price includes tax preparation and printing of federal tax returns and free federal e-file of up to 5 federal tax returns. Additional fees may apply for e-filing state returns. E-file fees may not apply in certain states, check here for details . Savings and price comparison based on anticipated price increase. Software updates and optional online features require internet connectivity.
• Fastest Refund Possible: Fastest federal tax refund with e-file and direct deposit; tax refund time frames will vary. The IRS issues more than 9 out of 10 refunds in less than 21 days.
• Average Refund Amount: Sum of $3140 is the average refund American taxpayers received based upon IRS data date ending 02/17/23 and may not reflect actual refund amount received.
• TurboTax Product Support: Customer service and product support hours and options vary by time of year.
• #1 Best Selling Tax Software: Based on aggregated sales data for all tax year 2022 TurboTax products.
• Deduct From Your Federal or State Refund (if applicable): A $40 Refund Processing Service fee may apply to this payment method. Prices are subject to change without notice.
• Data Import: Imports financial data from participating companies; Requires Intuit Account. Quicken and QuickBooks import not available with TurboTax installed on a Mac. Imports from Quicken (2021 and higher) and QuickBooks Desktop (2021 and higher); both Windows only. Quicken import not available for TurboTax Desktop Business. Quicken products provided by Quicken Inc., Quicken import subject to change.
• Audit Defense: Audit Defense is a third-party add-on service provided, for a fee, by TaxResources, Inc., dba Tax Audit. See Membership Agreements at https://turbotax.intuit.com/corp/softwarelicense/ for service terms and conditions.

All features, services, support, prices, offers, terms and conditions are subject to change without notice.

Compare TurboTax products

All online tax preparation software

TurboTax online guarantees

TurboTax security and fraud protection

Tax forms included with TurboTax

TurboTax en español

TurboTax Live en español

Self-employed tax center

Tax law and stimulus updates

Tax Refund Advance

Unemployment benefits and taxes

File your own taxes

TurboTax crypto taxes

Credit Karma Money

Investment tax tips  

Online software products

TurboTax login

Free Edition tax filing

Deluxe to maximize tax deductions

TurboTax self-employed & investor taxes

Free military tax filing discount

TurboTax Live tax expert products

TurboTax Live Premium

TurboTax Live Full Service Pricing

TurboTax Live Full Service Business Taxes

TurboTax Live Assisted Business Taxes

TurboTax Business Tax Online

Desktop products

TurboTax Desktop login

All Desktop products

Install TurboTax Desktop

Check order status

TurboTax Advantage

TurboTax Desktop Business for corps

Products for previous tax years

Tax tips and video homepage

Browse all tax tips

Married filing jointly vs separately

Guide to head of household

Rules for claiming dependents

File taxes with no income

About form 1099-NEC

Crypto taxes

About form 1099-K

Small business taxes

Amended tax return

Capital gains tax rate

File back taxes

Find your AGI

Help and support

TurboTax support

Where's my refund

File an IRS tax extension

Tax calculators and tools

TaxCaster tax calculator

Tax bracket calculator

Check e-file status refund tracker

W-4 tax withholding calculator

ItsDeductible donation tracker

Self-employed tax calculator

Crypto tax calculator

Capital gains tax calculator

Bonus tax calculator

Tax documents checklist

Social and customer reviews

TurboTax customer reviews

TurboTax blog

TurboTax Super Bowl commercial

TurboTax vs H&R Block reviews

TurboTax vs TaxSlayer reviews

TurboTax vs TaxAct reviews

TurboTax vs Jackson Hewitt reviews

More products from Intuit

TurboTax Canada

Accounting software

QuickBooks Payments

Professional tax software

Professional accounting software

Credit Karma credit score

More from Intuit

©1997-2024 Intuit, Inc. All rights reserved. Intuit, QuickBooks, QB, TurboTax, ProConnect, and Mint are registered trademarks of Intuit Inc. Terms and conditions, features, support, pricing, and service options subject to change without notice.

Security Certification of the TurboTax Online application has been performed by C-Level Security.

By accessing and using this page you agree to the Terms of Use .

• Travel, Tourism & Hospitality ›

Business Travel

Industry-specific and extensively researched technical data (partially from exclusive partnerships). A paid subscription is required for full access.

• Daily business tourism expenses in the United States 2018-2021

Average business travel cost in the United States from 4th quarter 2018 to 4th quarter 2021 (in U.S. dollars per day)

• Immediate access to 1m+ statistics
• Incl. source references
• Download as PNG, PDF, XLS, PPT

Additional Information

Show sources information Show publisher information Use Ask Statista Research Service

United States

Q4 2018 to Q4 2021

Data published by Business Travel News in partnership with ADVITO, Emburse, Geosure, and Prime Numbers.

Other statistics on the topic Business travel in the United States

• Global business travel spending 2001-2022
• Biggest corporate travel spenders in the U.S. 2022, by booked air volume
• Top U.S. travel management partners 2020
• Highest-priced U.S. business travel destinations Q4 2022

To download this statistic in XLS format you need a Statista Account

To download this statistic in PNG format you need a Statista Account

To download this statistic in PDF format you need a Statista Account

To download this statistic in PPT format you need a Statista Account

As a Premium user you get access to the detailed source references and background information about this statistic.

As a Premium user you get access to background information and details about the release of this statistic.

As soon as this statistic is updated, you will immediately be notified via e-mail.

… to incorporate the statistic into your presentation at any time.

You need at least a Starter Account to use this feature.

• Immediate access to statistics, forecasts & reports
• Usage and publication rights
• Download in various formats

You only have access to basic statistics. This statistic is not included in your account.

• Instant access  to 1m statistics
• Download  in XLS, PDF & PNG format
• Detailed  references

Business Solutions including all features.

Statistics on " Business travel in the United States "

• G20 nations: business travel spending 2021
• Share of tourism spending in leading global travel markets 2022, by type
• Number of business travel jobs in the U.S. 2019-2021
• Readiness of U.S. travelers to take business trips 2021
• Business travel volume in the U.S. 2010-2021
• Growth rate of domestic business trips in the U.S. 2017-2026
• Inbound business tourism volume in the U.S. 2011-2021
• Main source countries for U.S. inbound business travel 2022
• Average monthly trips by U.S. business travelers 2022, by type
• U.S. inbound business travel spending 2010-2021
• U.S. inbound business travel spending 2020, by source region
• Main source markets for U.S. inbound business travel spending 2020
• U.S. outbound business travel spending 2010-2021
• Main recipient countries of U.S. outbound business travel spending 2020
• U.S. domestic business travel spending 2019-2026
• Favorite hotel brands for corporate travel during COVID-19 in the United States 2021
• Predictions on reduction of U.S. corporate travel spend due to green goals 2025
• Predictions on corporate travel spending in the United States 2022, by destination
• Adoption of digital nomads' way of living in the U.S. 2022
• Major reasons to take bleisure trips for U.S. business travelers 2022
• Favorite trip length for U.S. bleisure travelers 2022
• Favorite countries for U.S. Americans to work remotely 2021
• Most important features at accommodations for U.S. bleisure travelers 2022
• Workation destination choice of remote workers from the U.S. 2021
• Motivations of U.S. Americans who work remotely to choose workation 2021
• Duration of workations by U.S. Americans who work remotely 2021
• Main concerns of U.S. remote workers when picking workation lodging 2021
• U.S. remote workers' satisfaction with workation experience 2021

Other statistics that may interest you Business travel in the United States

• Premium Statistic Global business travel spending 2001-2022
• Basic Statistic G20 nations: business travel spending 2021
• Basic Statistic Share of tourism spending in leading global travel markets 2022, by type
• Premium Statistic Number of business travel jobs in the U.S. 2019-2021
• Premium Statistic Readiness of U.S. travelers to take business trips 2021

Volume of business tourism

• Premium Statistic Business travel volume in the U.S. 2010-2021
• Premium Statistic Growth rate of domestic business trips in the U.S. 2017-2026
• Premium Statistic Inbound business tourism volume in the U.S. 2011-2021
• Premium Statistic Main source countries for U.S. inbound business travel 2022
• Premium Statistic Average monthly trips by U.S. business travelers 2022, by type

Business travel spending

• Premium Statistic U.S. inbound business travel spending 2010-2021
• Premium Statistic U.S. inbound business travel spending 2020, by source region
• Premium Statistic Main source markets for U.S. inbound business travel spending 2020
• Premium Statistic U.S. outbound business travel spending 2010-2021
• Premium Statistic Main recipient countries of U.S. outbound business travel spending 2020
• Premium Statistic U.S. domestic business travel spending 2019-2026
• Premium Statistic Daily business tourism expenses in the United States 2018-2021
• Premium Statistic Highest-priced U.S. business travel destinations Q4 2022
• Premium Statistic Biggest corporate travel spenders in the U.S. 2022, by booked air volume
• Premium Statistic Top U.S. travel management partners 2020
• Premium Statistic Favorite hotel brands for corporate travel during COVID-19 in the United States 2021
• Premium Statistic Predictions on reduction of U.S. corporate travel spend due to green goals 2025
• Premium Statistic Predictions on corporate travel spending in the United States 2022, by destination

Bleisure travel

• Premium Statistic Adoption of digital nomads' way of living in the U.S. 2022
• Premium Statistic Major reasons to take bleisure trips for U.S. business travelers 2022
• Premium Statistic Favorite trip length for U.S. bleisure travelers 2022
• Premium Statistic Favorite countries for U.S. Americans to work remotely 2021
• Premium Statistic Most important features at accommodations for U.S. bleisure travelers 2022

Travel behavior of remote workers

• Premium Statistic Workation destination choice of remote workers from the U.S. 2021
• Premium Statistic Motivations of U.S. Americans who work remotely to choose workation 2021
• Premium Statistic Duration of workations by U.S. Americans who work remotely 2021
• Premium Statistic Main concerns of U.S. remote workers when picking workation lodging 2021
• Premium Statistic U.S. remote workers' satisfaction with workation experience 2021

Further related statistics

• Premium Statistic Cost of international and domestic business trips in the U.S. 2010-2014
• Premium Statistic Highest-priced non-U.S. business travel destinations in the Americas Q4 2022
• Premium Statistic Change in international and domestic business hotel costs in the U.S. 2011-2014
• Premium Statistic Travel managers expecting an increase in business travel costs in 2018, by category
• Premium Statistic Change in international and domestic business car rental costs in the U.S. 2011-2014
• Premium Statistic Highest-priced U.S. business travel destinations Q4 2022, by daily hotel costs
• Premium Statistic Corporate hotel costs per night in the U.S. from 2009 to 2014
• Basic Statistic Business travel spending in Spain 2010-2017
• Premium Statistic Business travel spending in Italy 2010-2025
• Premium Statistic Business travel spending in Brazil 2010-2025
• Basic Statistic Business and leisure travel daily spending in Germany 2007-2022
• Premium Statistic Travel managers expecting an increase in business travel costs in 2014, by country
• Premium Statistic Business travel spending in the UK 2010-2025
• Premium Statistic Business travel spending in Germany 2010-2025
• Premium Statistic Most expensed hotels by North American business travelers Q2 2019
• Premium Statistic Travel frequency for business purposes in Egypt 2023

Further Content: You might find this interesting as well

• Cost of international and domestic business trips in the U.S. 2010-2014
• Highest-priced non-U.S. business travel destinations in the Americas Q4 2022
• Change in international and domestic business hotel costs in the U.S. 2011-2014
• Travel managers expecting an increase in business travel costs in 2018, by category
• Change in international and domestic business car rental costs in the U.S. 2011-2014
• Highest-priced U.S. business travel destinations Q4 2022, by daily hotel costs
• Corporate hotel costs per night in the U.S. from 2009 to 2014
• Business travel spending in Spain 2010-2017
• Business travel spending in Italy 2010-2025
• Business travel spending in Brazil 2010-2025
• Business and leisure travel daily spending in Germany 2007-2022
• Travel managers expecting an increase in business travel costs in 2014, by country
• Business travel spending in the UK 2010-2025
• Business travel spending in Germany 2010-2025
• Most expensed hotels by North American business travelers Q2 2019
• Travel frequency for business purposes in Egypt 2023

Nicole Rosenberg fama PR for Motus 617-986-5041 [email protected]

Release Summary

Runzheimer, powered by Motus, today released its 2019 Cost of Business Travel Report.

• #WorkTravel
• #BusinessTravel

Social Media Profiles

• Motus Facebook
• Motus Twitter
• Motus LinkedIn

15 Ways to Reduce Business Travel Expenses

Whether it’s conferences and tradeshows or closing a deal, business travel often yields a return or it gets cut. Yet it still represents a big outlay for many companies, one which – if not managed correctly – can quickly eat into your bottom line.

This article arms business owners and finance professionals with the strategies and tools necessary to make smarter business travel expense decisions. We'll explore the top ways to get the most out of accommodation, flights, and transport; and examine how digital solutions are revolutionising business and corporate travel expense management, saving both money and valuable time for finance teams.

How to Save Money on Employee Accommodation

Accommodation represents a significant portion of business travel expenses, making it a prime area for cost-cutting without sacrificing employee comfort. By exploring alternatives to traditional hotels, venturing out beyond bustling city centres, taking advantage of loyalty programs, negotiating corporate rates, and considering the benefits of 'bleisure' stays, business owners and finance professionals can significantly reduce accommodation costs associated with business travel. Here are some ideas:

1. Sign up for loyalty programs : Understand the long-term value of hotel loyalty programs for your company. Points accumulated during employee business trips will often translate into free nights or upgrades, directly reducing future accommodation costs. Proactive enrollment and management of these programs should be a priority for business owners and finance managers.

2. Negotiate corporate rates: If your company has frequent business travel needs, contact hotels directly to negotiate corporate rates. Even smaller businesses may be able to secure some discounts and remember, if you don’t ask, you don't get!

3. Consider “bleisure” stays : Combining business and leisure travel, known as "bleisure," is growing in popularity, as it benefits both employers and employees. Consider booking properties that offer discounts for extending stays over a weekend, providing employees the option to incorporate a personal holiday. This can improve employee retention, boost morale, and reduce business expenses costs.

How to Pay Less for Business Flights

Securing the best possible deals on business flights requires a combination of careful planning, flexibility, and an understanding of the factors that influence pricing. Here are a few ways to increase your business travel expense savings across short-haul and long-haul journeys:

4. Subscribe to travel alerts: Sign up for price alerts on booking sites like Skyscanner and Google Flights to ensure you're notified of price fluctuations and deals.

5. Be flexible with dates : Flexibility in travel dates can directly translate to higher savings on business travel expenses. For example, flights departing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays often result in lower fares, as do flight times like red-eyes and early departures.

6. Use comparison sites : Improve cost-effective decision-making by using comparison sites like Skyscanner, Kayak, or Google Flights. These tools facilitate a comprehensive analysis of options across multiple airlines, helping you to secure the best value for your corporate travel budget.

Reduce Costs with Environmentally-Friendly Transportation

Ground transportation can quickly add up and inflate overall business travel expenses. Here are a few ways to promote budget-consciousness and efficient travel and ensure your employees navigate their business trips cost-effectively.

7. Utilise city passes : Investigate the availability and potential cost benefits of city passes. These passes often provide unlimited access to public transportation for a fixed duration and provide substantial savings compared to purchasing individual fares, especially for employees with extensive itineraries.

8. Explore bike-sharing programs : Encourage employees to take advantage of public bike-sharing schemes, a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly option for short-distance travel, allowing them to experience the city in a unique way while reducing transportation expenses.

9. Promote the use of public transport : Encourage employees to use trains, buses, or subways as their primary mode of transportation, especially in cities with reliable and extensive public transit systems.

Reducing Costs on Food Expenses

Food expenses can easily escalate during business trips. By encouraging efficient spending strategies, you can help your employees dine smart without sacrificing quality or breaking the bank. Here’s how:

10. Take advantage of complimentary breakfasts : Ensure all employees are fully aware of any included hotel breakfasts and actively encourage them to take full advantage of this significant cost-saving opportunity.

11. Promote local eateries: Guide employees towards a more authentic culinary experience by recommending locally-owned restaurants and cafes, where they can often discover unique flavours, higher quality food, and better value than in tourist-centric establishments.

12. Set Meal Allowances : Establish daily or per-meal allowances within your business travel expense policy, providing employees with clear guidelines on spending while also offering them the flexibility to make their own dining choices within a budget.

Revolutionise Your Travel Expense Management

Traditional credit cards and reimbursement processes can often lead to overspending, unauthorised purchases, and a mountain of administrative work for both your finance team and travelling employees.

Digital solutions like CleverCards revolutionise business travel expense management, streamline processes and enable business owners and finance managers to exercise greater control over employee spending. Here’s how!

13. Control employee spending remotely : CleverCards are prepaid digital Mastercards that can be distributed remotely to travelling employees with a specific amount loaded onto each card. This allows you to establish spending limits by category (hotels, meals, transport, etc.), prevent unauthorised spending, and ensure employees adhere to business travel budgets.

14. Reduce time spent on finance admin: CleverCards digital prepaid Mastercards can be emailed to employees worldwide, eliminating time-consuming pre-travel paperwork. As well as that, the absence of traditional reimbursement forms and the need to collect and process receipts upon return, provides significant time savings for your finance team.

15. Per diems made easy : CleverCards enables you to provide ongoing financial support to your employees throughout their travels. You can easily allocate per diems or top-up allowances in real-time, ensuring they have the resources they need. This eliminates financial stress and allows them to focus fully on their business trip objectives.

Ready to Reduce Your Business Travel Expenses?

Business travel expenses don’t have to break the bank. By implementing the strategies outlined in this guide, you can regain control over your employee’s spending while abroad or visiting a different city in Ireland. From accommodation and flights to local transportation and meals, a few smart choices can lead to significant savings over time.

By switching to CleverCards, not only will you experience direct savings and greater control, but you'll free up valuable time for your finance team and give your travelling employees a smoother and more focused experience.

For more information, contact the CleverCards team by filling out the enquiry form below. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Automatic Refunds and No More Hidden Fees: D.O.T. Sets New Rules for Airlines

The Transportation Department issued new requirements on refunds when flights are canceled or delayed and on revealing “junk” fees before booking. Here’s what passengers can expect.

By Christine Chung

The Transportation Department on Wednesday announced new rules taking aim at two of the most difficult and annoying issues in air travel: obtaining refunds and encountering surprise fees late in the booking process.

“Passengers deserve to know upfront what costs they are facing and should get their money back when an airline owes them — without having to ask,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement, adding that the changes would not only save passengers “time and money,” but also prevent headaches.

The department’s new rules, Mr. Buttigieg said, will hold airlines to clear and consistent standards when they cancel, delay or substantially change flights, and require automatic refunds to be issued within weeks. They will also require them to reveal all fees before a ticket is purchased.

Airlines for America , a trade group representing the country’s largest air carriers, said in a statement that its airlines “abide by and frequently exceed” D.O.T. consumer protection regulations.

Passenger advocates welcomed the new steps.

Tomasz Pawliszyn, the chief executive of AirHelp, a Berlin-based company that assists passengers with airline claims, called it a “massive step forward and huge improvement in consumer rights and protection” that brings the United States closer to global standards in passenger rights.

Here’s what we know about the D.O.T.’s new rules, which will begin to go into effect in October.

There’s now one definition for a “significant” delay.

Until now, airlines have been allowed to set their own definition for a “significant” delay and compensation has varied by carrier . Now, according to the D.O.T., there will be one standard: when departure or arrival is delayed by three hours for domestic flights and six hours for international flights.

Passengers will get prompt refunds for cancellations or significant changes for flights and delayed bags, for any reason.

When things go wrong, getting compensation from an airline has often required establishing a cumbersome paper trail or spending untold hours on the phone. Under the new rules, refunds will be automatic, without passengers having to request them. Refunds will be made in full, excepting the value of any transportation already used. Airlines and ticket agents must provide refunds in the original form of payment, whether by cash, credit card or airline miles. Refunds are due within seven days for credit card purchases and within 20 days for other payments.

Passengers with other flight disruptions, such as being downgraded to a lower service class, are also entitled to refunds.

The list of significant changes for which passengers can get their money back also includes: departure or arrival from an airport different from the one booked; connections at different airports or flights on planes that are less accessible to a person with a disability; an increase in the number of scheduled connections. Also, passengers who pay for services like Wi-Fi or seat selection that are then unavailable will be refunded any fees.

Airlines must give travel vouchers or credits to ticketed passengers unable to fly because of government restrictions or a doctor’s orders.

The vouchers or credits will be transferable and can be used for at least five years after the date they were issued.

Fees for checked baggage and modifying a reservation must be disclosed upfront.

Airlines and ticket agents are now required to display any extra fees for things like checking bags or seat selection clearly and individually before a ticket purchase. They will also need to outline the airline’s policies on baggage, cancellations and changing flights before a customer purchases a ticket.

The rules, which apply to all flights on domestic airlines and flights to and from the United States operated by foreign airlines, have varying start dates.

For example, automatic refunds must be instituted by the airlines within six months. But carriers have a year before they’re required to issue travel vouchers and credits for passengers advised by a medical professional not to fly.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

Christine Chung is a Times reporter covering airlines and consumer travel. More about Christine Chung

Open Up Your World

Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

52 Places:  Why do we travel? For food, culture, adventure, natural beauty? Our 2024 list has all those elements, and more .

Mumbai:  Spend 36 hours in this fast-changing Indian city  by exploring ancient caves, catching a concert in a former textile mill and feasting on mangoes.

Kyoto:  The Japanese city’s dry gardens offer spots for quiet contemplation  in an increasingly overtouristed destination.

Iceland:  The country markets itself as a destination to see the northern lights. But they can be elusive, as one writer recently found .

Texas:  Canoeing the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park can be magical. But as the river dries, it’s getting harder to find where a boat will actually float .

• Search Search Please fill out this field.
• Company News

Walmart Abandons Health Clinics Foray as Costs Mount

Bloomberg / Contributor / Getty Images

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Walmart is closing the 51 health centers in five states and will shutter its telehealth business.
• Walmart blamed an "unsustainable" business model and high costs for the closure.
• The big-box retailer is also launching a new grocery brand called BetterGoods with most of the goods priced under $5 each.

Walmart ( WMT ) said Tuesday will close health centers it opened in five states and shutter its telehealth business, as expenses around building a network of low-cost health clinics increase.

The retailer said it is closing all 51 health centers it had first launched in 2019, although the company said it will continue to provide health and wellness services in its 4,600 pharmacies and more than 3,000 Vision Centers.

Walmart said in a statement that the business model for the clinics was “unsustainable.”

“This is a difficult decision, and like others, the challenging reimbursement environment and escalating operating costs create a lack of profitability that make the care business unsustainable for us at this time,” the retail giant said.

Walmart Launches Grocery Line to Capitalize on Inflation

Separately, the big-box retailer also said Tuesday it is launching a new grocery brand called BetterGoods, in its latest push to increase its in-house product lines as the  disposable income squeeze created by inflation continues to hit consumers.

Most of the 300 products it will sell, which include pasta and chocolate, will be priced at under $5 each, the company said.

Consumers have been increasingly switching to cheaper private-label goods at low-priced chains in recent years amid elevated grocery prices. Walmart has been a beneficiary of that trend by launching in-house brands.

Walmart shares were down 1.46% at 1:35 p.m. Eastern Time.

Walmart. " Walmart Health Is Closing ."

Walmart. " Walmart Launches bettergoods, a New Private Brand Making Elevated Culinary Experiences Accessible for All ."

• Terms of Service
• Editorial Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Your Privacy Choices

What are you looking for?

Most popular topics.

• Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)

29 April 2024

Welcome aboard the saf journey.

In line with its decarbonisation roadmap, Airbus is joining forces with airlines to increase the use of sustainable aviation fuel for employee business travel.

Over the last decade, Airbus has gradually introduced sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) into its company operations. In 2023, Airbus reached its goal to reach 10% SAF in its fuel mix. By using the alternative fuel in aircraft deliveries to customers, in test flights, for Beluga transport and employee business travel, Airbus was able to reduce its 2023 CO 2 emissions by 23,587 tonnes. 

Still, there is a considerable amount that can be achieved to develop the SAF market. Airlines are supporting the effort by proposing SAF in business travel procurement. Airbus is taking advantage of the growing offer to make corporate travel flights powered with SAF available to employees. 

Zooming in on employee travel

With the aim to reduce the CO 2 footprint of employees, Airbus is working with several airlines to purchase SAF for business travel. It’s a strategic move that aligns with Airbus’ ambitions to reduce the company’s Scope 3 emissions. 

Thanks to such innovative SAF incentive programmes, we are able to walk the talk in reducing the environmental impact of our business travel and empower employees to take part in the effort of meeting Airbus’ CO 2 emission reduction goals.

Raphael DUFLOS, Head of Corporate Services General Procurement

  In 2022 and 2023, Airbus signed agreements with airlines Volotea and Air Corsica to have SAF onboard for internal charter flights connecting Toulouse to Finkenwerder, Germany, and Toulouse to Nantes and Saint-Nazaire in France. 

In order to further develop this practice, Airbus and Air France-KLM signed a first agreement in late 2023 adding routes between Paris and Toulouse as well as Paris and Marseille. 

But as SAF is not yet available at every airport, Airbus uses a Book and Claim process. This means that the flights are not necessarily powered with SAF. Rather, the purchased SAF goes into the fuel system at an airport close to a SAF production facility. This process ensures a more efficient lifecycle. The SAF purchased by Airbus is tracked and verified to allocate the correct carbon emissions factors.

New routes, more SAF with Air France KLM

After a successful pilot in 2023, Air France-KLM and Airbus are pursuing their collaboration with a 2024 “SAF fares agreement”. Airbus will now purchase SAF options for employee business travel connecting Hamburg, Madrid, Marseille, Munich and Toulouse to Paris. 

The airline will provide Airbus with a comprehensive report of SAF consumption and an estimation of the CO 2 footprint of Airbus’ employee travel on the five selected routes.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel at Airbus

A proven alternative fuel for immediate CO2 reduction

• Air France-KLM
• Sustainability
• Decarbonisation
• Sustainable Aviation Fuel - SAF

Discover more Sustainability news

Is quantum computing an enabler for the decarbonisation of aviation?

Paving the way for sustainable aerospace in Latin America

Saudi National Bank posts marginal rise in Q1 profit

• Medium Text

Sign up here.

Reporting by Federico Maccioni; Editing by Sonia Cheema

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. New Tab , opens new tab

The private equity owners of Playa Bowls are exploring options including a potential sale of the acai bowl chain that could value it at more than $300 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

Business Chevron

HSBC must prioritise Asian expertise in surprise CEO search

Under Chief Executive Noel Quinn, HSBC navigated a global pandemic and a push by rebel investors to break up the 160-year bank. His surprise departure is an opportunity to accelerate its strategic pivot to Asia, investors say.

We've detected unusual activity from your computer network

To continue, please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot.

Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy .

For inquiries related to this message please contact our support team and provide the reference ID below.

An official website of the United States Government

• Kreyòl ayisyen
• Search Toggle search Search Include Historical Content - Any - No Include Historical Content - Any - No Search
• Menu Toggle menu
• INFORMATION FOR…
• Individuals
• Business & Self Employed
• Charities and Nonprofits
• International Taxpayers
• Federal State and Local Governments
• Indian Tribal Governments
• Tax Exempt Bonds
• FILING FOR INDIVIDUALS
• How to File
• When to File
• Where to File
• Update Your Information
• Get Your Tax Record
• Apply for an Employer ID Number (EIN)
• Check Your Amended Return Status
• Get an Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN)
• File Your Taxes for Free
• Bank Account (Direct Pay)
• Payment Plan (Installment Agreement)
• Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS)
• Your Online Account
• Tax Withholding Estimator
• Estimated Taxes
• Where's My Refund
• What to Expect
• Direct Deposit
• Reduced Refunds
• Amend Return

Credits & Deductions

• INFORMATION FOR...
• Businesses & Self-Employed
• Earned Income Credit (EITC)
• Child Tax Credit
• Clean Energy and Vehicle Credits
• Standard Deduction
• Retirement Plans

Forms & Instructions

• POPULAR FORMS & INSTRUCTIONS
• Form 1040 Instructions
• Form 4506-T
• POPULAR FOR TAX PROS
• Form 1040-X
• Circular 230

Topic no. 511, Business travel expenses

More in help.

• Interactive Tax Assistant
• Report Phishing
• Fraud/Scams
• Notices and Letters
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Accessibility
• Contact Your Local IRS Office
• Contact an International IRS Office
• Other Languages

Travel expenses are the ordinary and necessary expenses of traveling away from home for your business, profession, or job. You can't deduct expenses that are lavish or extravagant, or that are for personal purposes.

You're traveling away from home if your duties require you to be away from the general area of your tax home for a period substantially longer than an ordinary day's work, and you need to get sleep or rest to meet the demands of your work while away.

Generally, your tax home is the entire city or general area where your main place of business or work is located, regardless of where you maintain your family home. For example, you live with your family in Chicago but work in Milwaukee where you stay in a hotel and eat in restaurants. You return to Chicago every weekend. You may not deduct any of your travel, meals or lodging in Milwaukee because that's your tax home. Your travel on weekends to your family home in Chicago isn't for your work, so these expenses are also not deductible. If you regularly work in more than one place, your tax home is the general area where your main place of business or work is located.

In determining your main place of business, take into account the length of time you normally need to spend at each location for business purposes, the degree of business activity in each area, and the relative significance of the financial return from each area. However, the most important consideration is the length of time you spend at each location.

You can deduct travel expenses paid or incurred in connection with a temporary work assignment away from home. However, you can't deduct travel expenses paid in connection with an indefinite work assignment. Any work assignment in excess of one year is considered indefinite. Also, you may not deduct travel expenses at a work location if you realistically expect that you'll work there for more than one year, whether or not you actually work there that long. If you realistically expect to work at a temporary location for one year or less, and the expectation changes so that at some point you realistically expect to work there for more than one year, travel expenses become nondeductible when your expectation changes.

Travel expenses for conventions are deductible if you can show that your attendance benefits your trade or business. Special rules apply to conventions held outside the North American area.

Deductible travel expenses while away from home include, but aren't limited to, the costs of:

• Travel by airplane, train, bus or car between your home and your business destination. (If you're provided with a ticket or you're riding free as a result of a frequent traveler or similar program, your cost is zero.)
• The airport or train station and your hotel,
• The hotel and the work location of your customers or clients, your business meeting place, or your temporary work location.
• Shipping of baggage, and sample or display material between your regular and temporary work locations.
• Using your car while at your business destination. You can deduct actual expenses or the standard mileage rate, as well as business-related tolls and parking fees. If you rent a car, you can deduct only the business-use portion for the expenses.
• Lodging and non-entertainment-related meals.
• Dry cleaning and laundry.
• Business calls while on your business trip. (This includes business communications by fax machine or other communication devices.)
• Tips you pay for services related to any of these expenses.
• Other similar ordinary and necessary expenses related to your business travel. (These expenses might include transportation to and from a business meal, public stenographer's fees, computer rental fees, and operating and maintaining a house trailer.)

Instead of keeping records of your meal expenses and deducting the actual cost, you can generally use a standard meal allowance, which varies depending on where you travel. The deduction for business meals is generally limited to 50% of the unreimbursed cost.

If you're self-employed, you can deduct travel expenses on Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business (Sole Proprietorship) , or if you're a farmer, on Schedule F (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Farming .

If you're a member of the National Guard or military reserve, you may be able to claim a deduction for unreimbursed travel expenses paid in connection with the performance of services as a reservist that reduces your adjusted gross income. This travel must be overnight and more than 100 miles from your home. Expenses must be ordinary and necessary. This deduction is limited to the regular federal per diem rate (for lodging, meals, and incidental expenses) and the standard mileage rate (for car expenses) plus any parking fees, ferry fees, and tolls. Claim these expenses on Form 2106, Employee Business Expenses and report them on Form 1040 , Form 1040-SR , or Form 1040-NR as an adjustment to income.

Good records are essential. Refer to Topic no. 305 for information on recordkeeping. For more information on these and other travel expenses, refer to Publication 463, Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses .

•  Facebook
•  Twitter
•  Linkedin

• Manage Account

Blackburn and Hickenlooper Introduce Senate Bill to Boost U.S. Music Tourism, Calling Venues ‘Keepers of Our Culture’

The American Music Tourism Act of 2024 would see a coordinated national effort to increase both domestic and international travel to music events or venues.

By Taylor Mims

Taylor Mims

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Pinit
• + additional share options added
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Email
• Print this article
• Share this article on Comment
• Share this article on Tumblr

U.S. Senators  Marsha Blackburn  (R-Tenn.) and  John Hickenlooper  (D-Colo.) have introduced a bill to help support music tourism throughout the country. Dubbed the American Music Tourism Act of 2024, the newly introduced legislation would be an amendment to the Visit America Act that passed in 2022 and required the assistant secretary of commerce for travel and tourism to lead a coordinated national effort to rejuvenate international tourism following declines from the pandemic.  

Trending on Billboard

Sweeping ticketing reform bill that would ban deceptive sales tactics & more introduced….

The act classifies music tourism as the act of traveling to a state or locality to visit historic or modern-day music related attractions including museums, studios, venues of all sizes and other sites related to music. The definition also includes traveling somewhere in the U.S. to attend a music festival, concert or other live music performance. If passed, the act would strengthen the economic benefits of music festivals like Tennessee’s Bonarroo or California’s Stagecoach, as well as music venues from Madison Square Garden in New York City to Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.

The bipartisan legislation is endorsed by the Recording Academy, the Nashville Songwriter’s Association International, the Recording Industry Association of America, Live Nation Entertainment, the National Independent Venues Association, Tennessee Department of Tourism Development, Tennessee Entertainment Commission, Memphis Tourism, Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism and the Overton Park Shell in Memphis.

“The Recording Academy is pleased to support the American Music Tourism Act and applauds Senators Blackburn and Hickenlooper for their continued dedication to lifting up the music community,” said Recording Academy chief advocacy and public policy officer Todd Dupler in a statement. “Music has long played an important role in our economy and culture. This bill will amplify the music community’s contributions to economic growth and increase understanding of music’s impact on the U.S. and the world.”

Live Nation’s president of Nashville music and business strategy Sally Williams also voiced her approval of the act, stating, “In Nashville, Memphis, and countless other communities across the country, a vibrant live music scene is an economic magnet that draws fans from around the globe. The American Music Tourism Act is an important piece of legislation that will help ensure live music remains a pillar of American culture and tourism, and we’d like to thank the Senator for her leadership on this issue.”

“From rural communities to city centers, independent stages attract investment and visitors for the artists and professionals that put on shows and the restaurants, retail, and attractions around them,” said National Independent Venue Association executive director Stephen Parker in an endorsement. “The American Music Tourism Act finally recognizes music tourism as a catalyst for economic development and ensures its growth is a national priority. We applaud Senators Marsha Blackburn and John Hickenlooper for aligning the nation’s tourism strategy with the venues and festivals across our country that the world travels to experience.”

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about?

Get in the know on.

Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

optional screen reader

Charts expand charts menu.

• Billboard Hot 100™
• Billboard 200™
• Hits Of The World™
• TikTok Billboard Top 50
• Song Breaker
• Year-End Charts
• Decade-End Charts

Music Expand music menu

• R&B/Hip-Hop

Culture Expand culture menu

Media expand media menu, business expand business menu.

• Business News
• Record Labels
• View All Pro

Pro Tools Expand pro-tools menu

• Songwriters & Producers
• Artist Index
• Royalty Calculator
• Market Watch
• Industry Events Calendar

Billboard Español Expand billboard-espanol menu

• Cultura y Entretenimiento

Honda Music Expand honda-music menu

A man who 'hopes he runs out of money' before he dies explains why you may not need as much cash to retire as you think

Paid non-client promotion: Affiliate links for the products on this page are from partners that compensate us (see our advertiser disclosure with our list of partners for more details). However, our opinions are our own. See how we rate investing products to write unbiased product reviews.

• Bill Perkins wants to spend every penny before he dies, he explains in his book "Die With Zero."
• He thinks most people are saving too much for retirement, given that a lot of it goes unused. 
• One in three retirees increase their wealth, and most curb their spending naturally, he explains.

Author Bill Perkins hopes to run out of money in retirement.

While he has saved for retirement, and he does hope to use that money, he hopes to really use it — he wants to spend his balance down to nothing. Instead of leaving a large inheritance, he'd rather use his money on experiences, helping his children while they're starting out, and spending the money on his needs.

While it goes against traditional retirement planning logic, Perkins says that people may be saving too much for retirement, holding them back from living and having meaningful experiences while they're able. While that comes at the expense of saving more for later, that might not be a bad thing.

In his 2020 book " Die with Zero ," he explains that there are four big reasons many people could actually be OK saving a bit less than they originally thought they'd need.

1. Net worth tends to increase in retirement

Net worth , or a total of all of your assets minus any loans or debt, tends to increase with age. And, that includes into retirement years.

Perkins writes that about a third of retirees actually see their net worth increase in retirement. According to 2016 Federal Reserve Board data, median and average net worth for people over the age of 75 was higher than that of those 65- to 74-year-olds, also presumably past retirement age. The median net worth for those over age 75 was $281,600, compared to $237,600 for those between 65 and 74.

While some people did use up their money, many retirees actually see their net worth increase with time.

2. Healthcare costs are high, but no amount of money can cover the worst-case scenarios

Healthcare costs are a major expense in retirement and, for many, a big surprise when it comes to retirement plan savings. But Perkins says it's not worth worrying about.

"To put it bluntly, no amount of savings available to most people will cover the costliest healthcare you might possibly need," he writes. He cites million-dollar cancer treatments and his father's $50,000-per-night hospital stay as examples.

While Medicare and its supplements can make healthcare more affordable, there's no way to save for the worst possible scenarios. "Uninsured medical care is so expensive, it won't make any real difference for the vast majority of us whether we save for it or not," he writes.

Ultimately, Perkins feels this money is better spent when you're younger. "It is much smarter to spend your healthcare money on the front end (to maintain your health and try to prevent disease) than to spend it at the end, when you get a lot less bang for every buck," he writes.

3. It's easier than you think to decrease your expenses later on

Many people tend to decrease their spending naturally as their expenses go down in retirement, and overspending doesn't seem to be an issue for many retirees.

"The median ratio of household spending to household income hovers around 1:1. This means that people's spending continues to closely track their income," writes Perkins.

Despite the fact that some items do get more expensive — take healthcare as an example — other things get cheaper. Perkins cites 2017 Consumer Expenditure survey data, where average spending for households aged 55 to 64 spent $64,000, 65- to 74-year-olds spent $55,000, and those 75 and older spent $42,000.

"This overall decline occurred despite a rise in healthcare expenses, because most other expenses, such as clothing and entertainment, were much lower," Perkins writes.

4. Most people only spend a portion of what they have saved

Perkins' book repeats the fact that most people only touch a portion of what they have saved.

To prove this, Perkins collected data from a range of retirement budgets . "Retirees who had $500,000 or more right before retirement had spent down a median of only 11.5% of that money 20 years later or by the time they died," he writes.

And, this pattern held true even for those with smaller savings. "Retirees with less than $200,000 saved up for retirement ... had spent down only one quarter of their assets 18 years after retirement."

While saving too much isn't inherently bad, it could be if it prevents you from doing the things you want to do while you're still able.

This article was originally published in May 2021.

• Main content