Business Travel Expenses in Canada: What Is Deductible and What Is Not

Travel expenses incurred to earn business income are deductible in Canada - public transportation fares, hotel accommodation and meals. Meals are cut to 50% by section 67.1. And there is a limit almost nobody knows about: you may deduct the cost of attending no more than two conventions a year.

The 60-second version

Deductible travel includes public transportation fares, hotel accommodation and meals incurred to earn business or professional income.[1]
Meals on the road are still 50%. The section 67.1 limit applies while travelling exactly as it does at home.[1][4]
Two conventions per year, maximum, and the location must be consistent with the territorial scope of the organisation holding it.[2]
A meal built into an airfare is not caught by the 50% rule. No amount paid for travel on an airplane, train or bus counts as being in respect of food consumed on board.[4]
Long-haul truck drivers deduct 80% of meals during an eligible travel period, not 50%.[4]

What CRA actually lists as travel

CRA's list is short and unglamorous: public transportation fares, hotel accommodations, and meals.[1] The underlying test is the general one in paragraph 18(1)(a) - the expense must be incurred for the purpose of gaining or producing income from the business - with paragraph 18(1)(h) blocking personal or living expenses.[3]

In practice the deductible list is wider than three items, because anything incurred for that purpose while travelling on business qualifies on the same principle: baggage fees, airport parking, taxis and rideshares, the conference registration itself, business phone and data roaming, currency conversion costs on business charges. Vehicle costs on a business trip follow the vehicle expense rules rather than the travel heading.

What is not deductible is anything that would have been a personal or living expense had you stayed home, and the leisure portion of a trip that mixes the two.

Meals on the road, and the airfare carve-out

The 50% limit does not take a holiday when you do. Section 67.1 deems an amount paid in respect of the human consumption of food or beverages, or the enjoyment of entertainment, to be 50% of the lesser of the amount actually paid and an amount that would be reasonable in the circumstances.[4] CRA states plainly that these limits apply to the cost of meals when you travel or attend a convention or conference.[1] Our piece on the 50% meals and entertainment rule covers the mechanics.

Where travel changes the answer is on a plane, train or bus. Paragraph 67.1(4)(a) provides that no amount paid or payable for travel on an airplane, train or bus shall be considered to be in respect of food, beverages or entertainment consumed or enjoyed while travelling thereon.[4]

So a $780 airfare that happens to include a meal is a $780 transportation expense, fully deductible. It does not get carved into a fare component and a meal component. But CRA is equally clear on the other side: the 50% limit does apply to food, beverages and entertainment consumed on that plane, train or bus when the ticket price does not include them.[1] Buy a sandwich on board with your card, and you are back to 50%.

The two-convention limit

This is the rule most often missed, and it is right in the statute. Subsection 20(10) permits the deduction of expenses incurred in attending, in connection with the business, not more than two conventions held during the year by a business or professional organisation, at a location that may reasonably be regarded as consistent with the territorial scope of that organisation.[2]

Two constraints, both worth reading twice.

The count. Two per year. Attend four industry conventions and two of them are simply not deductible as conventions - regardless of how business-related the fourth one was.

The location. The venue must be consistent with the organisation's territorial scope. A New Brunswick provincial association holding its annual convention in Fredericton or Moncton is unremarkable. The same association holding it in Cancun is a problem, because the location is not reasonably consistent with the scope of the body. A national organisation can hold a convention anywhere in Canada. An international body has correspondingly wider latitude.

Note that the limit attaches to conventions, not to every event with a name badge. Training courses, trade shows attended to buy or sell, and client meetings are ordinary business expenses tested under 18(1)(a), and are not counted against the two.

The 80% rule for long-haul truck drivers

Subsection 67.1(1.1) replaces the 50% figure with a "specified percentage" for food and beverages consumed by a long-haul truck driver during an eligible travel period.[4] For amounts paid or payable after 2010 that percentage is 80%.[4]

The definitions are precise, and all three have to be satisfied:

A long-haul truck is a truck or tractor designed for hauling freight with a gross vehicle weight rating exceeding 11,788 kilograms.[4]
A long-haul truck driver is an individual whose principal business or principal duty of employment is driving one.[4]
An eligible travel period is a period of at least 24 continuous hours away from the municipality or metropolitan area of the driver's specified place, for the purpose of driving a long-haul truck transporting goods to or from a location beyond a 160 kilometre radius of that place.[4]

The specified place is the employer's establishment where an employee ordinarily reports, or, for an owner-operator, where the individual resides.[4] A day trip does not qualify no matter how far it goes, because it fails the 24-hour test.

Special work locations and the 30-kilometre test

CRA lists several situations where the 50% limit does not apply at all. Two of them matter to a business that sends people away from home.[1]

The first is where the amount of the meal or entertainment expense is included in an employee's income, or would be included if the employee did not work at a remote or special work location. CRA attaches a condition: the amount cannot be paid or payable for a conference, convention, seminar or similar event, and the special work location must be at least 30 kilometres from the closest urban centre with a population of 40,000 or more.[1]

The second is meals provided to an employee housed at a temporary work camp constructed or installed specifically to provide meals and accommodation to employees working at a construction site, where the employee cannot be expected to return home daily.[1]

Both are full-deduction situations, not 50% ones. If you run crews out of town, that distinction is worth several thousand dollars a year.

Paying for an employee's travel

When you send an employee on a business trip, meals are handled differently from meals in general. CRA's guidance on employer-provided meals begins by carving out the situation where the meal is provided as part of a travel expense - in that case you stop before reaching the taxable-benefit analysis at all.[5]

Contrast that with an overtime meal, which is not travel. There, CRA's administrative policy treats a meal or allowance as non-taxable only if the allowance or cost is reasonable - generally up to $23 including taxes - the employee works two or more hours of overtime immediately before or after scheduled hours, and the overtime is infrequent and occasional, generally less than three times a week.[5] Higher amounts can still be reasonable where local meal costs are higher or there are significant extenuating circumstances.[5]

The $23 figure gets quoted as though it were a universal per diem. It is not. It is the reasonableness benchmark for an overtime meal, and it has sat at $23 since 2020 after rising from $17.[5]

The GST/HST half you have to give back

Claiming an input tax credit on business travel is straightforward for airfare, hotels and taxis. Meals and entertainment are not.

Section 236 of the Excise Tax Act mirrors section 67.1 into the GST/HST system: where the income tax rule deems an amount to be 50% of a particular amount, the registrant has to add an amount back in computing net tax.[6] In effect you claim the full ITC as you go and recapture half of the meals and entertainment portion at the end of the fiscal year. The same provision carries the long-haul truck driver percentage through.[6]

Missing that adjustment is one of the most common GST/HST errors in a business with real travel spending, precisely because the ITC was correctly claimed at the time.

Mixed trips, and the spouse question

A conference in Vancouver followed by four days of holiday is two trips wearing one set of receipts. The business portion is deductible; the personal portion is a living expense blocked by paragraph 18(1)(h).[3] Airfare that would have been incurred anyway for the business purpose generally stays deductible; the extra four nights of hotel and the associated meals do not.

A spouse's travel costs are deductible only where the spouse's presence genuinely serves a business purpose - as an employee performing duties, not as company. Being helpful is not the test. If your spouse is on payroll and the trip is part of their duties, document what they did.

Keep the itinerary, the agenda or conference programme, and the business reason for each day. That contemporaneous record is what separates a defensible apportionment from a negotiation, and it belongs in your six-year records.

Frequently asked questions

Are business travel expenses deductible in Canada?

Yes. CRA lists public transportation fares, hotel accommodations and meals as deductible travel expenses where incurred to earn business or professional income. Meals are subject to the 50% limit in section 67.1. The general test is paragraph 18(1)(a) - incurred for the purpose of gaining or producing income - with personal or living expenses blocked by paragraph 18(1)(h).

How many conventions can I deduct in a year?

Two. Subsection 20(10) permits deducting the cost of attending not more than two conventions held during the year by a business or professional organisation, and the location must be reasonably consistent with the territorial scope of that organisation. Training courses, trade shows and client meetings are ordinary business expenses and do not count against the two.

Is the meal included in my airfare subject to the 50% limit?

No. Paragraph 67.1(4)(a) provides that no amount paid for travel on an airplane, train or bus is considered to be in respect of food, beverages or entertainment consumed while travelling on it. A fare that includes a meal is fully deductible as transportation. Food you buy separately on board, where the ticket price does not include it, is still subject to the 50% limit.

What is the meal deduction for long-haul truck drivers?

80% for amounts paid or payable after 2010, under subsection 67.1(1.1). It applies to food and beverages consumed during an eligible travel period - at least 24 continuous hours away from the specified place, driving a truck over 11,788 kg gross vehicle weight rating to or from a point beyond a 160 km radius.

Is a meal allowance I pay an employee on a business trip taxable?

CRA's guidance treats a meal provided as part of a travel expense as an exception before the taxable-benefit analysis begins. That is separate from the overtime meal policy, where an allowance is non-taxable only if it is reasonable - generally up to $23 including taxes - the employee works two or more hours of overtime immediately before or after scheduled hours, and the overtime is infrequent and occasional.

Can I claim the full GST/HST input tax credit on travel meals?

Not permanently. Section 236 of the Excise Tax Act mirrors the section 67.1 restriction into GST/HST, requiring an add-back in computing net tax so that only half the input tax credit on meals and entertainment is ultimately retained. Airfare, hotels and taxis are not affected. The recapture is a common oversight because the ITC was correctly claimed at the time.

Sources cited in this article

CRA - Business expenses
CRA's list of deductible travel expenses, the application of the 50% limit while travelling, the on-board food rule, and the exceptions including the 30 km special work location test and temporary work camps.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/sole-proprietorships-partnerships/business-expenses.html
Income Tax Act - section 20
Subsection 20(10), the two-convention limit and the requirement that the location be consistent with the territorial scope of the organisation.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-3.3/section-20.html
Income Tax Act - section 18
Paragraph 18(1)(a), the purpose-of-earning-income test, and paragraph 18(1)(h), which blocks personal or living expenses.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-3.3/section-18.html
Income Tax Act - section 67.1
The 50% deeming rule in 67.1(1); the long-haul truck driver rule in 67.1(1.1); the airplane, train and bus carve-out in 67.1(4)(a); and the definitions in 67.1(5) including eligible travel period, long-haul truck, specified place and the 80% specified percentage.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-3.3/section-67.1.html
CRA - Meals provided by the employer
The travel exception that stops the taxable-benefit analysis, and the overtime meal policy including the $23 reasonableness benchmark and the prior-year rates.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/payroll/benefits-allowances/benefits-allowances-chart/meals.html
Excise Tax Act - section 236
The provision that mirrors section 67.1 into GST/HST, requiring an add-back in computing net tax on meals and entertainment.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e-15/section-236.html
CRA - T4002, Self-employed Business, Professional, Commission, Farming and Fishing Income
The guide that walks through reporting travel and convention expenses on Form T2125.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/t4002.html
CRA - T4130, Employers' Guide, Taxable Benefits and Allowances
Employer reporting where a travel or meal allowance is a taxable benefit.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/t4130.html

All sources verified 2026-08-13. Spotted a link that has moved? Email support@mapleexpense.com and we will correct it.