Publication 3, Armed Forces' Tax Guide; Itemized Deductions
Reservists. You can deduct travel expenses if you
are under competent orders, with or without pay, and away from your main place
of business overnight to perform drills and training duty.
If you are called to active duty, you
can deduct travel expenses if you keep your regular job while on active duty,
return to your job after release, and are stationed away from the general area
of your regular job or business. However, you can deduct these expenses only if
you pay for them at your official military post and only to the extent the
expenses exceed BAH and BAS.
Armed Forces reservists. A meeting of an Armed Forces reserve
unit is a second place of business if the meeting is held on a day on which you
work at your regular job. You can deduct the expense of getting from one
workplace to the other as just discussed under Two places of work.
You usually cannot deduct the expense if
the reserve meeting is held on a day on which you do not work at your regular
job. In this case, your transportation generally is considered a nondeductible
commuting cost. However, you can deduct your transportation expenses if the
location of the meeting is temporary and you have one or more regular places of
work.
If you ordinarily work in a particular
metropolitan area but not at any specific location and the reserve meeting is
held at a temporary location outside that metropolitan area, you can deduct
your transportation expenses.
If you travel away from home overnight
to attend a guard or reserve meeting, you can deduct your travel expenses.
These expenses are discussed earlier under Travel Expenses.