The transition period covers the last three
months of a calendar year or tax year (October 1 - December 31). The
transition period is referred to in
IRS Publication
1542 under the topic of using
standard per
diem rates as a method for writing off
M&IE expenses from a
taxpayer's travel
expenses. CONUS
and OCONUS per diem rates
are provided by the
GSA and
Department of
State for many purposes. The IRS allows CONUS and OCONUS per diem
rates to be used for the
per diem deduction.
The transition period causes a dilemma because the
per diem rates
aren't valid for the same time frame as a normal calendar year. Per diem
rates are generally valid from October 1st to September 30th,
while a tax year is from January 1st to December 31st.
For example, the 2008 CONUS and
OCONUS per diem rates have a cycle from Oct. 1, 2007 to Sep. 30, 2008 while
the 2008 tax year is from Jan. 1, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2008. That means that
2008 per diem rates expire before the tax year is over. The transition
rules in IRS Publication 1542 allow taxpayers to use the following year's per
diem rates during the transition period if they are available or to use the
current year's per diem rates for the remainder of the year. The caveat is
that the method chosen must be used for the entire tax year. Flight
crewmembers are not allowed to use one method for one layover and another method
for another layover because the IRS states that they must be consistent.
Because the per diem differences from one year to the next result in a
negligible difference, the latter method is the method EZPERDIEM.COM uses in the
Per Diem
CalculatorTM.
Airline pilots and flight attendants don't need
to know this information because EZPERDIEM.COM handles this issue automatically
in The Per Diem CalculatorTM.
In other words, the flight crewmember simply enters the layover's IATA code next
to the layover date and EZPERDIEM.COM handles all of the calculations,
transition rules, per diem rate selections, etc.
