{"id":138,"date":"2011-06-30T17:56:22","date_gmt":"2011-06-30T17:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ua-cpas.com\/blog\/?p=138"},"modified":"2011-06-30T17:56:22","modified_gmt":"2011-06-30T17:56:22","slug":"tax-tips-for-business-travelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/06\/30\/tax-tips-for-business-travelers\/","title":{"rendered":"Tax Tips for Business Travelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Traveling for business this summer? Let Uncle Sam chip in <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mixing business with pleasure can have several benefits if done the right way. As long as the trip was undertaken primarily for business reasons, the entire airfare is tax deductible in addition to the cost of lodging and 50% of meals while on business status. So if Penny Pincher, a self employed information technology specialist, flies from New York to Los Angeles on a 5 day business trip and wishes to go sightseeing for 3 days afterward, she can deduct the entire airfare and now her mini-vacation is, in effect, subsidized by the tax break. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Is It \u201cPrimarily For Business\u201d? <\/strong><\/p>\n

There is no hard-and-fast rule for when a trip is considered to be primarily for business reasons. Each case has to be judged based on its own circumstances. One important factor is the way travelers split time between their business and personal pursuits. The concept here is to piggyback a personal vacation onto a business trip, not the other way around.<\/p>\n

Get a Free Vacation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although an employee\u2019s out-of-town business chores conclude on Friday, he may extend his business trip to take advantage of a low-priced fare requiring a Saturday night stay over, where the savings in airfare are higher than the costs of the weekend meals and lodging. The employee doesn\u2019t pay tax on the reimbursement for his Saturday meal and lodging expenses. In this case, the IRS said that under a \u201ccommon sense test,\u201d payments to the employee for the Saturday stay were deductible if a \u201chardheaded business person would have incurred such expenses under such circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stop On the Way<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not interested in your business destination? No problem – you can make a stop wherever youdesire, whether en route to or from your business destination, and still deduct the amount the travel would have cost without the stopover. To illustrate, suppose Sam Surfer, a business owner who always wanted to visit Hawaii must travel to Hong Kong for 6 days for business purposes. The airfare would have been $1,400, but with a 3 day stopover in Hawaii would amount to $1,700. The $1,400 would still be deductible despite the fact that he would be stopping over. It is important to keep a record of what the round-trip travel costs would have been without the personal stop.<\/p>\n

Should I Bring My Spouse?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although the expenses of a spouse or other companion accompanying a traveler are not deductible (unless (1) the spouse\/companion is an employee of the taxpayer and is also traveling for business, and (2) his\/her expenses would otherwise be deductible), a tax benefit may still be salvaged from traveling together. The rule is that any travel expense that would have been incurred had the traveler been alone is deductible no matter what. So if, for example, Lora Lonely would have paid $200 a night for a room at the hotel but instead brought her spouse and paid $150 per person, she would still be allowed to deduct $200 a night. Similarly, if she rented a car to get to the hotel and brought along her spouse she would be able to fully deduct the car rental expense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plan Your Getaway<\/strong><\/p>\n

So as you plan your summer business travel, don\u2019t forget to consult with your \u00a0tax advisor at Urbach & Avraham \u00a0to see how much Uncle Sam can help you out with your summer vacation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Traveling for business this summer? Let Uncle Sam chip in Mixing business with pleasure can have several benefits if done the right way. As long as the trip was undertaken primarily for business reasons, the entire airfare is tax deductible in addition to the cost of lodging and 50% of meals while on business status. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14,20,22],"tags":[200],"class_list":{"0":"post-138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-small-business-forum","7":"category-medical-practices","8":"category-staffing-agencies","9":"category-tax-tips-for-individuals","10":"tag-travel-expenses","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}