What is a Business Travel Expense
The IRS has designated a distinct phrase for travel away from your tax home: business travel. Travel expenses are one of the most generally deducted business expenses. Business travel expenses are those costs incurred while on business trips away from home that can result in considerable business expense deductions. They are subject to a number of rules that you must strictly adhere to or risk an unpleasant experience during an audit.
A travel expense is an instance of a business expense. When employees incur costs when traveling away from home primarily for business purposes, the business can often deduct reasonable business travel expenses. Conferences and meetings are examples of business travel. As a result, in order to claim a deduction, you must be able to meet the basic business expense requirements.
How Your Travel Qualifies as a Business Trip
The IRS requires that the principal objective of the trip needs to be for business purposes in order to deduct travel expenses. Here is how to make sure your trip counts as a business trip.
- You must leave from your tax home.
- Your vacation must be “primarily” business-related.
- Travel must be viewed as an “ordinary and essential” expenditure.
- You must plan your business trip in advance.
List of Business Travel Expenses
You can deduct the following travel expenses if you spend the night away from home for business:
Transportation
You can deduct 100 percent of the expense of travel to your destination on a business trip, whether it is by airline, train, or bus.
- Train station or airport
- Hotel from the airport
- Between your hotel and your workplace
- Between clients in the area
If you rent a car when you reach your destination, the cost is deductible if the vehicle is utilized solely for business. You can only deduct the percentage of the rental that you use for business if you utilize it for both business and personal purposes.
Taxi, Commuter Bus, Airport Limousine
You can deduct the expenditure of getting to your hotel or a business location from the airport.
Baggage and Shipping
You can deduct the costs of baggage delivery or carrying business materials between your regular work place or tax home and a temporary work location.
Lodging and Meals
Your hotel expenses are tax-deductible. While on a business trip away from home, you can deduct expenditures for lodging and meals. You can either report actual expenses or use IRS-approved per diem rates.
The IRS permits business travelers to deduct work-related meals and hotel expenses as long as they are fair in light of the circumstances.
- Expenses for travel to and from the business location
- Food and lodging during the business segment of the trip
However, if the vacation is primarily for personal purposes, you cannot deduct such costs. Even if you intend to conduct business at the destination, this is true. Regardless of the reason of the trip, you can deduct business expenses incurred at the destination.
Other expenses
While traveling for business, you can deduct the following other expenses:
- Laundry and dry cleaning
- Calls and faxes for business (not personal calls)
- Allowable expenditure suggestions.
- Other similar business expenses, such as computer rental, can be incurred while traveling.
Special Types of Deductions in Business Travel
Conventions and Trade Shows
If you travel to visit a convention or trade show, you may need to establish that the convention is directly tied to or associated with your business. You would qualify if you had a sales booth at the convention.
If you are participating in a convention as a delegate, the event’s goal must be relevant to your industry. Traveling to and participating in conferences for investment, social, or other objectives is not deductible.
Cruises
Even for direct or related business reasons, cruise ship travel is limited. The IRS establishes daily restrictions on luxury water travel each year. It is determined based on the cruise dates and an amount twice the federal per diem rate for that traveling period.
Business Travel Expenses Documentation
Saving all of your receipts is the most critical element of the process of deducting travel expenses. You don’t have to keep paper copies, but you should be able to take out a discrete receipt to indicate the date, the spending details, the amount spent, and the business reason.
Remember the travel expenses definition by IRS, “ordinary and necessary expenses incurred while carrying on your trade or business.”
Wrapping Up
Business travel expenses are deductible if they are common and accepted in your business, and they are useful and acceptable for your organization. When traveling, the most important thing to remember is to save copies of all of your expenses. Precise financial statements will help you comprehend cash flow and keep track of deductible expenses.
