Guide
Unreimbursed employee business expenses
The short answer is the one nobody wants: if you are an ordinary W-2 employee, you almost certainly cannot deduct work expenses you paid for yourself. That deduction was a miscellaneous itemized deduction subject to the 2%-of-AGI floor, and Publication 529 states those can no longer be claimed. Four categories of employee are still able to file Form 2106. Everyone else has a different route, and it is not the tax return.
Scope, and one limit we could not verify
This describes US federal rules, checked on 16 August 2026 against IRS Publication 529 and the Form 2106 page, both named where used. It is not tax advice. One thing is deliberately left open below rather than asserted, because we could not confirm it on an IRS page.
The suspension of these deductions came from the 2017 tax law and was originally written to run through the 2025 tax year. Legislation in 2025 is widely reported to have removed that end date and made the change permanent, and the IRS's own materials on the 2025 act describe miscellaneous itemized deductions as permanently eliminated — but we could not find that provision on the IRS provisions index we checked. So: Publication 529's position is stated here as the rule, and the status for the year you are actually filing is worth confirming with the IRS or an accountant rather than taken from this page.
What Publication 529 actually says
"You can no longer claim any miscellaneous itemized deductions that are subject to the 2%-of-AGI limitation, including unreimbursed employee expenses." That sentence covers the great majority of people searching for this. Home office costs, tools, mileage you were not paid for, professional subscriptions, the laptop you bought yourself — none of it is deductible for an ordinary employee.
This surprises people who remember doing it, and it surprises them again when they find articles that still describe the deduction in the present tense. Those articles are not necessarily lying; a lot of them were written before the change and never updated, which is a good reason to check the year on anything you read about this, including this page.
The four categories who can still file Form 2106
Publication 529 keeps the deduction for four groups: Armed Forces reservists, qualified performing artists, fee-basis state or local government officials, and employees with impairment-related work expenses. If you are in one of these, Form 2106 is the form, and its current revision is 2025.
These are narrow categories with their own tests — the performing artist one in particular has income and expense thresholds that most working performers do not meet. If you think you qualify, that is a question worth asking an accountant once rather than assuming either way, because the answer decides whether a year of record keeping has any tax value at all.
The route that actually recovers the money
Ask to be reimbursed. An accountable reimbursement plan at your employer returns the full cost to you rather than a fraction of it via a deduction, and it costs the employer less than a raise. For an ordinary employee this is not the second-best option — since the deduction is gone, it is the only one.
The practical version: submit expenses promptly, with a receipt and a line saying what the spend was for, on whatever the company uses. If there is no process, propose one — most small employers have simply never set it up, and the request is easier to grant when it arrives as a suggested process rather than as a complaint. Keeping the records well is what makes that ask straightforward.
Keep the records anyway
Even without a deduction, the reason to record work spending has not gone: reimbursement claims, disputes about what you were owed, and the possibility that your situation changes — you go self-employed, you take contract work, or you turn out to be in one of the four categories. Records you did not keep cannot be reconstructed.
The habit is the same one every other page here describes: capture on the day, record the amount, the date, the merchant and the reason. If you do become self-employed, that history is immediately worth money rather than being a year you have to write off.
If you are self-employed, none of this applies
This page is about employees. If you are self-employed, a contractor or a sole proprietor, your business expenses are deducted on Schedule C and the rules are entirely different — travel, home office, vehicle and supplies are all live questions rather than closed ones.
The distinction is about your tax status, not about how the work feels. Plenty of people do employee work and freelance work in the same year, and the same laptop purchase may be deductible against one and not the other. Two sets of records, kept separately, is the correct answer there.
What about state returns?
Some states did not follow the federal change and still allow a version of this deduction on the state return. That is a genuine possibility worth checking rather than a technicality, because for a high-expense employee it can be the only remaining route.
We are not going to list which states, because that list changes and this site's rule is not to state things it cannot verify against a current source. Your state tax authority's own instructions answer it, and so will an accountant in about a minute.
Questions
Common questions
Can employees deduct unreimbursed work expenses?
Generally no. Publication 529 states that miscellaneous itemized deductions subject to the 2%-of-AGI limitation, including unreimbursed employee expenses, can no longer be claimed. Four categories of employee are the exception.
Who can still file Form 2106?
Armed Forces reservists, qualified performing artists, fee-basis state or local government officials, and employees with impairment-related work expenses. Each has its own qualifying test, and the performing-artist one in particular is narrower than it sounds.
Is the suspension permanent?
The 2017 law's suspension was written to run through 2025, and 2025 legislation is widely reported to have made it permanent. We could not confirm that on an IRS page when this was written on 16 August 2026, so confirm the status for your filing year with the IRS or an accountant rather than relying on any article.
What can I do instead of deducting them?
Get reimbursed. A reimbursement returns the whole cost rather than a fraction of it, and it is now the only route for an ordinary employee. Submit promptly with a receipt and the business reason, and propose a process if your employer has none.
Should I keep receipts for work expenses if I cannot deduct them?
Yes. They support reimbursement claims and any dispute about what you were owed, and they become immediately valuable if you move to self-employment or contract work during the year.
Do state returns follow the federal rule?
Not all of them. Some states still allow a version of this deduction, which can be the only remaining route for a high-expense employee. Check your state tax authority's instructions or ask an accountant.