If you’re lucky enough to get away this season, consider making vacation plans that will enable you to deduct some of your travel expenses. The only way to do this is to include certain activities in your trip.
Combine business with pleasure. Take a meeting for business in a distant location and all of your airfare is a deductible business expense even though you spend some time on your personal activities. As long as the primary purpose of the trip is business within the United States, transportation and lodging costs and 50 percent of meal expenses on business days can be written off. If you drive instead of fly, you can deduct 56.5 cents per mile, plus parking and tolls.
However, there’s no red line for determining whether the primary reason for your trip is for business or pleasure. Clearly, if you spend more days on business than personal activities, it demonstrates a business need for the travel.
The key to nailing down a deduction for business travel is good record keeping. Be sure to carefully follow the rules outlined on IRS.gov so that if your return is questioned, you can back up your claims. Consider using an app like Expensify to keep track of your business-related travel expenses.
read more…via Writing Off Your Summer Vacation – My Money (usnews.com).
Moore Bookkeeping 