Business Travel

If you have a residence enterprise that demands you to travel, either by plane, car, or train, then you have additional tax deductions you may qualify for. This consists of but is not limited to the cost of airfare, meals, dry-cleaning, and hotel/motel expenses. This write-up will cover the rules and requirements so you can claim these deductions on your 2006 tax return.

For enterprise travel that takes you away from home overnight or for various months (but still within the United States), the major expenses that can be claimed are as follows:

The cost of traveling to the new location including the standard mileage deduction for your car, airfare, or train tickets.

The cost of activities even though you’re there, including renting a vehicle, taxis, meals, hotels, and mileage if driving your automobile.

Keep in mind that to claim 100% of these deductions, the primary purpose of your travel must be for company. For example: if you travel to Orlando, Florida to attend a convention in your region of organization, then you can deduct all of the expenses throughout the days the convention is open. After the convention is over and you decide to extend your stay for a few more days, then expenses incurred throughout those extended days would not be covered. If your spouse is with you the entire time, you can not write of their expenses unless they are an employee of the business and as a very good enterprise reason for being there. However, sharing a room and rental car if they are with you would have the exact same deduction amount as if you had been alone regardless of their enterprise status. In other words, you would split the cost of the room and rental car in half.

If the primary purpose of the visit is for a vacation to Orlando, the you can not write off the transportation costs, such as the airfare of traveling to Orlando. However, once you are there, you can still write off the amounts of traveling around Orlando for enterprise. Keep careful records of your company expenses when mixing organization with pleasure. The tax savings can be substantial. *Note that travel outside of the United States have diverse rules.

Often keep detailed records of your organization travel expenses. The IRS takes these deductions seriously. This means maintain all receipts for meals and entertainment, which are mandatory for expenses over . It also would be useful to keep a journal or enterprise log of activities, describing the business activity conducted. In the log, consist of the date, name and address of the restaurant or entertainment location, which includes the sort of entertainment. Also identify folks entertained and the enterprise reason for their presence.

If you didn’t maintain records up to this point, the IRS provides a standard allowance between and a day, depending on where the organization travel is. See IRS publication #463 for a complete list.