The 50-Mile Rule: What the IRS Actually Says

What “away from home” means to the IRS

IRS Publication 463 sets the test without a distance: “You are traveling away from home if: Your duties require you to be away from the general area of your tax home (defined later) substantially longer than an ordinary day’s work, and You need to sleep or rest to meet the demands of your work while away from home.”

Your tax home is an area, not an address: “It includes the entire city or general area in which your business or work is located.” (IRS Publication 463) Read on October 2, 2026, Publication 463 states no mileage for traveling away from home: it contains no “50 miles” or “50-mile”, and its only mileage figure for travel is the 100 miles for Armed Forces reservists, below.

How long one place can last is a separate test; see our guide to travel PT contracts. The Tax Home Checker walks through the tax home factors, and our travel therapy tax guide goes further.

Where the 50 miles comes from

The number is the distance test of the old moving-expense deduction, which measured a move to a new main job, not a work assignment away from home. IRS Publication 521 (2017 edition, read as the IRS's PDF): “Your move will meet the distance test if your new main job location is at least 50 miles farther from your former home than your old main job location was from your former home.” (IRS Publication 521, PDF)

The IRS's current page on moving expenses covers members of the Armed Forces and the Intelligence Community: “If you're a member of the Armed Forces on active duty, you may be eligible to deduct unreimbursed moving expenses or exclude reimbursed moving expenses for you, your spouse, and your dependents if your move was due to a military order and incident to a permanent change of station or pursuant to a change of assignment which requires relocation or permanent change of station.” (IRS Topic no. 455) Neither is a test for travel away from home.

The one mileage figure in Publication 463

Publication 463 does name a distance, for members of the reserves only: “If you travel more than 100 miles away from home in connection with your performance of services as a member of the reserves, you may be able to deduct some of your reserve-related travel costs as an adjustment to gross income rather than as an itemized deduction.” It is a rule about where reservists deduct their travel costs, not a travel-therapy rule.

No tax home, no travel

Distance does not help if there is no tax home to be away from. IRS Publication 463: “If you don’t have a regular or main place of business or post of duty and there is no place where you regularly live, you are considered an itinerant (a transient) and your tax home is wherever you work.” The Tax Home Checker and our Travel PT 101 guide cover what makes a tax home.

Agency minimums

An agency's minimum distance, if it has one, is its own policy: Publication 463 sets no distance. Whether an agency sets a minimum distance of its own, and what it is, varies by agency: ask the recruiter before you plan around one. A tax professional can apply the IRS test to your own situation.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a 50-mile rule for travel therapy?

Not in IRS Publication 463, which states no mileage for traveling away from home. Its test: “You are traveling away from home if: Your duties require you to be away from the general area of your tax home (defined later) substantially longer than an ordinary day’s work, and You need to sleep or rest to meet the demands of your work while away from home.”

Where does the 50-mile rule come from?

From the distance test of the old moving-expense deduction, which measured a move, not a work assignment. IRS Publication 521 (2017): “Your move will meet the distance test if your new main job location is at least 50 miles farther from your former home than your old main job location was from your former home.” The IRS's current page on moving expenses covers members of the Armed Forces and the Intelligence Community: “If you're a member of the Armed Forces on active duty, you may be eligible to deduct unreimbursed moving expenses or exclude reimbursed moving expenses for you, your spouse, and your dependents if your move was due to a military order and incident to a permanent change of station or pursuant to a change of assignment which requires relocation or permanent change of station.”

Can I take a travel contract in my own city?

Not as travel away from home. IRS Publication 463 says of your tax home: “It includes the entire city or general area in which your business or work is located.” And you are traveling away from home only if: “You are traveling away from home if: Your duties require you to be away from the general area of your tax home (defined later) substantially longer than an ordinary day’s work, and You need to sleep or rest to meet the demands of your work while away from home.”

More: the travel therapy tax guide and the Tax Home Checker.

What is the 100-mile rule?

A rule for members of the reserves, not for travel therapists. IRS Publication 463: “If you travel more than 100 miles away from home in connection with your performance of services as a member of the reserves, you may be able to deduct some of your reserve-related travel costs as an adjustment to gross income rather than as an itemized deduction.”

Why does my agency require a minimum distance?

If it does, that is its own policy: IRS Publication 463 sets no distance. Whether an agency sets a minimum distance of its own, and what it is, varies by agency: ask the recruiter before you plan around one.

Sources

• IRS Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses (read 2026-10-02).
• IRS Publication 521 (2017), Moving Expenses (prior-year edition) (read 2026-10-02).
• IRS Topic no. 455, Moving expenses for members of the Armed Forces and the Intelligence Community (read 2026-10-02).