how to make a trip a business expense

Everything You Need to Know About the Business Travel Tax Deduction

Justin is an IRS Enrolled Agent, allowing him to represent taxpayers before the IRS. He loves helping freelancers and small business owners save on taxes. He is also an attorney and works part-time with the Keeper Tax team.

You don’t have to fly first class and stay at a fancy hotel to claim travel expense tax deductions. Conferences, worksite visits, and even a change of scenery can (sometimes) qualify as business travel.

What counts as business travel?

The IRS does have a few simple guidelines for determining what counts as business travel. Your trip has to be:

Mostly business
An “ordinary and necessary” expense
Someplace far away from your “tax home”

What counts as "mostly business"?

The IRS will measure your time away in days. If you spend more days doing business activities than not, your trip is considered "mostly business". Your travel days are counted as work days.

Special rules for traveling abroad

If you are traveling abroad for business purposes, you trip counts as " entirely for business " as long as you spend less than 25% of your time on personal activities (like vacationing). Your travel days count as work days.

So say you you head off to Zurich for nine days. You've got a seven-day run of conference talks, client meetings, and the travel it takes to get you there. You then tack on two days skiing on the nearby slopes.

Good news: Your trip still counts as "entirely for business." That's because two out of nine days is less than 25%.

What is an “ordinary and necessary” expense?

“Ordinary and necessary” means that the trip:

Makes sense given your industry, and
Was taken for the purpose of carrying out business activities

If you have a choice between two conferences — one in your hometown, and one in London — the British one wouldn’t be an ordinary and necessary expense.

What is your tax home?

A taxpayer can deduct travel expenses anytime you are traveling away from home but depending on where you work the IRS definition of “home” can get complicated.

Your tax home is often — but not always — where you live with your family (what the IRS calls your "family home"). When it comes to defining it, there are two factors to consider:

What's your main place of business, and
How large is your tax home

What's your main place of business?

If your main place of business is somewhere other than your family home, your tax home will be the former — where you work, not where your family lives.

For example, say you:

Live with your family in Chicago, but
Work in Milwaukee during the week (where you stay in hotels and eat in restaurants)

Then your tax home is Milwaukee. That's your main place of business, even if you travel back to your family home every weekend.

How large is your tax home?

In most cases, your tax home is the entire city or general area where your main place of business is located.

The “entire city” is easy to define but “general area” gets a bit tricker. For example, if you live in a rural area, then your general area may span several counties during a regular work week.

Rules for business travel

Want to check if your trip is tax-deductible? Make sure it follows these rules set by the IRS.

1. Your trip should take you away from your home base

A good rule of thumb is 100 miles. That’s about a two hour drive, or any kind of plane ride. To be able to claim all the possible travel deductions, your trip should require you to sleep somewhere that isn’t your home.

2. You should be working regular hours

In general, that means eight hours a day of work-related activity.

It’s fine to take personal time in the evenings, and you can still take weekends off. But you can’t take a half-hour call from Disneyland and call it a business trip.

Here's an example. Let’s say you’re a real estate agent living in Chicago. You travel to an industry conference in Las Vegas. You go to the conference during the day, go out in the evenings, and then stay the weekend. That’s a business trip!

3. The trip should last less than a year

Once you’ve been somewhere for over a year, you’re essentially living there. However, traveling for six months at a time is fine!

For example, say you’re a freelancer on Upwork, living in Seattle. You go down to stay with your sister in San Diego for the winter to expand your client network, and you work regular hours while you’re there. That counts as business travel.

What about digital nomads?

With the rise of remote-first workplaces, many freelancers choose to take their work with them as they travel the globe. There are a couple of requirements these expats have to meet if they want to write off travel costs.

Requirement #1: A tax home

Digital nomads have to be able to claim a particular foreign city as a tax home if they want to write off any travel expenses. You don't have to be there all the time — but it should be your professional home base when you're abroad.

For example, say you've rent a room or a studio apartment in Prague for the year. You regularly call clients and finish projects from there. You still travel a lot, for both work and play. But Prague is your tax home, so you can write off travel expenses.

Requirement #2: Some work-related reason for traveling

As long as you've got a tax home and some work-related reason for traveling, these excursion count as business trips. Plausible reasons include meeting with local clients, or attending a local conference and then extending your stay.

However, if you’re a freelance software developer working from Thailand because you like the weather, that unfortunately doesn't count as business travel.

The travel expenses you can write off

As a rule of thumb, all travel-related expenses on a business trip are tax-deductible. You can also claim meals while traveling, but be careful with entertainment expenses (like going out for drinks!).

Here are some common travel-related write-offs you can take.

🛫 All transportation

Any transportation costs are a travel tax deduction. This includes traveling by airplane, train, bus, or car. Baggage fees are deductible, and so are Uber rides to and from the airport.

Just remember: if a client is comping your airfare, or if you booked your ticket with frequent flier miles, then it isn't deductible since your cost was $0.

If you rent a car to go on a business trip, that rental is tax-deductible. If you drive your own vehicle, you can either take actual costs or use the standard mileage deduction. There's more info on that in our guide to deducting car expenses .

Hotels, motels, Airbnb stays, sublets on Craigslist, even reimbursing a friend for crashing on their couch: all of these are tax-deductible lodging expenses.

🥡 Meals while traveling

If your trip has you staying overnight — or even crashing somewhere for a few hours before you can head back — you can write off food expenses. Grabbing a burger alone or a coffee at your airport terminal counts! Even groceries and takeout are tax-deductible.

One important thing to keep in mind: You can usually deduct 50% of your meal costs. For 2021 and 2022, meals you get at restaurants are 100% tax-deductible. Go to the grocery store, though, and you’re limited to the usual 50%.

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🌐 Wi-Fi and communications

Wi-Fi — on a plane or at your hotel — is completely deductible when you’re traveling for work. This also goes for other communication expenses, like hotspots and international calls.

If you need to ship things as part of your trip — think conference booth materials or extra clothes — those expenses are also tax-deductible.

👔 Dry cleaning

Need to look your best on the trip? You can write off related expenses, like laundry charges.

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Travel expenses you can't deduct

Some travel costs may seem like no-brainers, but they're not actually tax-deductible. Here are a couple of common ones to watch our for.

The cost of bringing your child or spouse

If you bring your child or spouse on a business trip, your travel expense deductions get a little trickier. In general, the cost of bring other people on a business trip is considered personal expense — which means it's not deductible.

You can only deduct travel expenses if your child or spouse:

Is an employee,
Has a bona fide business purpose for traveling with you, and
Would otherwise be allowed to deduct the travel expense on their own

Some hotel bill charges

Staying in a hotel may be required for travel purposes. That's why the room charge and taxes are deductible.

Some additional charges, though, won't qualify. Here are some examples of fees that aren't tax-deductible:

Gym or fitness center fees
Movie rental fees
Game rental fees

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Where to claim travel expenses when filing your taxes

If you are self-employed, you will claim all your income tax deduction on the Schedule C. This is part of the Form 1040 that self-employed people complete ever year.

What happens if your business deductions are disallowed?

If the IRS challenges your business deduction and they are disallowed, there are potential penalties. This can happen if:

The deduction was not legitimate and shouldn't have been claimed in the first place, or
The deduction was legitimate, but you don't have the documentation to support it

When does the penalty come into play?

The 20% penalty is not automatic. It only applies if it allowed you to pay substantially less taxes than you normally would. In most cases, the IRS considers “substantially less” to mean you paid at least 10% less.

In practice, you would only reach this 10% threshold if the IRS disqualified a significant number of your travel deductions.

How much is the penalty?

The penalty is normally 20% of the difference between what you should have paid and what you actually paid. You also have to make up the original difference.

In total, this means you will be paying 120% of your original tax obligation: your original obligation, plus 20% penalty.

Justin W. Jones, EA, JD

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Can You Deduct Your Vacation From Your Taxes? Experts Weigh In

Know what’s deductible and what’s not when it comes to submitting travel expenses on your taxes..

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Man on wood patio with laptop computer, on green hill overlooking sea

If there’s a certain amount of work involved, you may be able to claim travel costs on your taxes.

Photo by GaudiLab/Shutterstock

People are traveling like crazy these days. The Sunday after Thanksgiving 2023 was the biggest single travel day in U.S. aviation history, with TSA screening more than 2.9 million passengers on November 26.

If you’re one of those travelers racking up frequent flier miles as quickly as you can fasten your seat belt, you may be looking for ways to recoup some of the cost. Can you legally write off your trip? If you’re self-employed (for example, if you’re an entrepreneur, freelancer, or consultant, or have an online business) and you did some work while on the road, there’s a good chance you can.

Here’s what it takes to get two thumbs up from the IRS.

Pass these four tests

For starters, your trip must have a business purpose, meaning it must include activities such as client meetings, attending a conference, being a guest speaker at a conference, doing research and development for the business, or holding a board meeting or annual shareholders’ meeting. The activity should have the potential to generate revenue.

“Don’t think you can take a personal trip, talk business for an hour and then try and deduct the whole amount of your trip. The intent of the trip needs to be business,” says Caitlynn Eldridge, founder and CEO of Eldridge CPA .

The second and third requirements deem that the trip must be both “ordinary and necessary,” according to IRS guidelines on business travel expenses . “An ordinary expense means it’s typical in your business, both [in terms of] amount [as well as in] frequency and purpose. Necessary means it actually helps you increase your profits or expand your business,” explains Tom Wheelwright, a certified public accountant and author of the book Tax-Free Wealth (BZK Press, 2018).

Lastly, every expense must be properly documented. To get a deduction for travel, Wheelwright said that you must spend more than half your time during the business day doing business and have everything documented. “So, if you spend four and a half hours a day doing business, it becomes deductible. You also must have documentation, which includes receipts, of what you did, and a log of your expenses,” says Wheelwright.

On receipts, write the name of the client who you had the meal with for further proof. “Save the emailed confirmation and receipt from the hotel reservation or conference ticket payment that show the dates, times, and name of the events as well as the receipts from the travel it took to get there and back [such as for gas or flights],” says Ben Watson, founder of Fiscal Fluency , a personal finance and business coaching company.

Note that for 2024, the IRS mileage reimbursement rate is 67 cents for employees or a self-employed individual traveling for work, up from 65.5 cents in 2023.

Know, too, that you must be away from home overnight—the IRS requires an overnight stay for the trip to qualify as business travel, Wheelwright says.

Domestic travel versus travel abroad

There’s a big difference between how you calculate deductions if the work trip was taken in the United States versus abroad. According to Wheelwright, “It’s an all-or-nothing test in the U.S., so either you spent more than 50 percent of your time on business, and it’s all deductible, or you spent 50 percent or less and none of it’s deductible.”

For international business travel, the deductions work differently. He explained that when you travel to another country, the deduction is proportionate. “For example, if you spent 40 percent of your time doing business in Italy, then 40 percent is deductible,” says Wheelwright.

Stick to the rules

Square outdoor infinity pool with palm trees in background and facing sea at dusk

If you normally stay in more modest hotels, trying to deduct a luxe property stay could raise red flags.

Photo by Yokwar/Shutterstock

It has to be a legitimate business trip. “You can’t simply do some work while on the beach and call it a business trip,” says Watson. But if you make it a “bleisure trip” by adding a couple days at the beach onto your preplanned business trip to the coast, you could still write off at least some of your lodging fees, he explained. If you do extend your trip for vacation, you can only deduct the expenses that were directly related to work and took place on the days that you conducted business. If you are traveling to multiple cities, keep in mind that each must have a business purpose.

You do have to work. If you are at a conference, make sure you fully participate, which means not just attending one or two sessions. If you only attend a small number of the business-related events, the entire purpose of the trip would be considered a personal trip with “incidental” business activities, Watson points out. Remember you need a log of what you did, and if it’s thin on details, it could prove problematic. “You don’t want to lose the ability to deduct transportation, lodging, meals, and other expenses,” says Watson.

If it’s a business trip of your own making, be sure it includes meetings with clients or participating in some work-related activity. “To demonstrate evidence of these events, it’s wise to put calendar appointments down in your phone in advance and hold onto receipts when the time comes to file your tax return and claim your deductions. Remember, the primary purpose of this trip is [supposed to be] for work,” says Riley Adams, a CPA and CEO and founder of WealthUp , a financial literacy website.

Don’t try to bend what “ordinary and necessary” means. “If you have the ability to accomplish the same business tasks while staying at a modest hotel as you would at the Four Seasons, you’ll have a hard time justifying the extra cost if you’re ever audited,” Watson cautions.

Stay at a place that is similar to places you normally stay on a business trip, so your expenses are considered “ordinary.” Wheelwright explains that if you usually stay at five-star hotels for your business trips, then the Four Seasons would fall into the same category. However, if you usually stay at hotels like the Comfort Inn, and suddenly switch to a luxury hotel, the high-end venue could raise red flags with the IRS. He says that it doesn’t matter whether you stay at a hotel or a vacation rental, the quality level and price tag should be similar to what is typical for your business trips.

When traveling with non–business companions, such as a spouse or family members, you may only deduct the cost of the lodging you would have paid if you were traveling alone—for example, if a single room costs $150 per night, and you paid $200 for a double room, you could only deduct at the $150 rate.

What can you deduct?

One woman in dress and two men in suits at dining table with salads, bread, and wine

You can deduct 50 percent of the cost of business meals.

Photo by Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

Personal meals are not deductible, but half the cost of food expenses related to business can be deducted. Expenses for your family’s meals and entertainment cannot be deducted unless they are actively engaged in the business and you can show that their expense is both ordinary and necessary.

Travel expenses are only deductible on the days in which the work-related event occurs. “For example, a taxi ride to the meeting, train to a conference, or plane ride to the event [are deductible],” says Adams. “Lodging, much like travel expenses, is deductible on the days in which business is set to occur.”

Understand too, that if you’re provided with a plane ticket paid for by your company, or you’re riding free because you’re redeeming frequent flier miles, your cost is zero, so you can’t deduct it.

But there are a couple of things you may not be aware of. For example, if you have to ship your baggage, you can deduct that cost; you also can deduct for tips for services, such as a tip to the waiter during a meal with a client.

Be strategic

It’s best to put your “vacation” days in the middle of the business days, advises CPA Greg O’Brien. “For example, if [a] business owner took a seven-day trip to Florida and spent five days meeting with clients or prospects and two days relaxing on the beach, this would still qualify as a deductible business trip. The trick is to stick the ‘vacation’ days in the middle of the business days,” he says.

By placing the vacation days in the middle, the travel days to and from are still considered business related, rather than personal.

Watson offers another tip: “Laundry, dry-cleaning and shoe-shine expenses are perfectly acceptable expenses if incurred shortly after returning home.”

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How to Deduct Travel Expenses (with Examples)

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November 3, 2022

This article is Tax Professional approved

Good news: most of the regular costs of business travel are tax deductible.

Even better news: as long as the trip is primarily for business, you can tack on a few vacation days and still deduct the trip from your taxes (in good conscience).

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Even though we advise against exploiting this deduction, we do want you to understand how to leverage the process to save on your taxes, and get some R&R while you’re at it.

Follow the steps in this guide to exactly what qualifies as a travel expense, and how to not cross the line.

The travel needs to qualify as a “business trip”

Unfortunately, you can’t just jump on the next plane to the Bahamas and write the trip off as one giant business expense. To write off travel expenses, the IRS requires that the primary purpose of the trip needs to be for business purposes.

Here’s how to make sure your travel qualifies as a business trip.

1. You need to leave your tax home

Your tax home is the locale where your business is based. Traveling for work isn’t technically a “business trip” until you leave your tax home for longer than a normal work day, with the intention of doing business in another location.

2. Your trip must consist “mostly” of business

The IRS measures your time away in days. For a getaway to qualify as a business trip, you need to spend the majority of your trip doing business.

For example, say you go away for a week (seven days). You spend five days meeting with clients, and a couple of days lounging on the beach. That qualifies as business trip.

But if you spend three days meeting with clients, and four days on the beach? That’s a vacation. Luckily, the days that you travel to and from your location are counted as work days.

3. The trip needs to be an “ordinary and necessary” expense

“Ordinary and necessary ” is a term used by the IRS to designate expenses that are “ordinary” for a business, given the industry it’s in, and “necessary” for the sake of carrying out business activities.

If there are two virtually identical conferences taking place—one in Honolulu, the other in your hometown—you can’t write off an all-expense-paid trip to Hawaii.

Likewise, if you need to rent a car to get around, you’ll have trouble writing off the cost of a Range Rover if a Toyota Camry will get you there just as fast.

What qualifies as “ordinary and necessary” can seem like a gray area at times, and you may be tempted to fudge it. Our advice: err on the side of caution. if the IRS chooses to investigate and discovers you’ve claimed an expense that wasn’t necessary for conducting business, you could face serious penalties .

4. You need to plan the trip in advance

You can’t show up at Universal Studios , hand out business cards to everyone you meet in line for the roller coaster, call it “networking,” and deduct the cost of the trip from your taxes. A business trip needs to be planned in advance.

Before your trip, plan where you’ll be each day, when, and outline who you’ll spend it with. Document your plans in writing before you leave. If possible, email a copy to someone so it gets a timestamp. This helps prove that there was professional intent behind your trip.

The rules are different when you travel outside the United States

Business travel rules are slightly relaxed when you travel abroad.

If you travel outside the USA for more than a week (seven consecutive days, not counting the day you depart the United States):

You must spend at least 75% of your time outside of the country conducting business for the entire getaway to qualify as a business trip.

If you travel outside the USA for more than a week, but spend less than 75% of your time doing business, you can still deduct travel costs proportional to how much time you do spend working during the trip.

For example, say you go on an eight-day international trip. If you spend at least six days conducting business, you can deduct the entire cost of the trip as a business expense—because 6 is equivalent to 75% of your time away, which, remember, is the minimum you must spend on business in order for the entire trip to qualify as a deductible business expense.

But if you only spend four days out of the eight-day trip conducting business—or just 50% of your time away—you would only be able to deduct 50% of the cost of your travel expenses, because the trip no longer qualifies as entirely for business.

List of travel expenses

Here are some examples of business travel deductions you can claim:

Plane, train, and bus tickets between your home and your business destination
Baggage fees
Laundry and dry cleaning during your trip
Rental car costs
Hotel and Airbnb costs
50% of eligible business meals
50% of meals while traveling to and from your destination

On a business trip, you can deduct 100% of the cost of travel to your destination, whether that’s a plane, train, or bus ticket. If you rent a car to get there, and to get around, that cost is deductible, too.

The cost of your lodging is tax deductible. You can also potentially deduct the cost of lodging on the days when you’re not conducting business, but it depends on how you schedule your trip. The trick is to wedge “vacation days” in between work days.

Here’s a sample itinerary to explain how this works:

Thursday: Fly to Durham, NC. Friday: Meet with clients. Saturday: Intermediate line dancing lessons. Sunday: Advanced line dancing lessons. Monday: Meet with clients. Tuesday: Fly home.

Thursday and Tuesday are travel days (remember: travel days on business trips count as work days). And Friday and Monday, you’ll be conducting business.

It wouldn’t make sense to fly home for the weekend (your non-work days), only to fly back into Durham for your business meetings on Monday morning.

So, since you’re technically staying in Durham on Saturday and Sunday, between the days when you’ll be conducting business, the total cost of your lodging on the trip is tax deductible, even if you aren’t actually doing any work on the weekend.

It’s not your fault that your client meetings are happening in Durham—the unofficial line dancing capital of America .

Meals and entertainment during your stay

Even on a business trip, you can only deduct a portion of the meal and entertainment expenses that specifically facilitate business. So, if you’re in Louisiana closing a deal over some alligator nuggets, you can write off 50% of the bill.

Just make sure you make a note on the receipt, or in your expense-tracking app , about the nature of the meeting you conducted—who you met with, when, and what you discussed.

On the other hand, if you’re sampling the local cuisine and there’s no clear business justification for doing so, you’ll have to pay for the meal out of your own pocket.

Meals and entertainment while you travel

While you are traveling to the destination where you’re doing business, the meals you eat along the way can be deducted by 50% as business expenses.

This could be your chance to sample local delicacies and write them off on your tax return. Just make sure your tastes aren’t too extravagant. Just like any deductible business expense, the meals must remain “ordinary and necessary” for conducting business.

How Bench can help

Surprised at the kinds of expenses that are tax-deductible? Travel expenses are just one of many unexpected deductible costs that can reduce your tax bill. But with messy or incomplete financials, you can miss these tax saving expenses and end up with a bigger bill than necessary.

Enter Bench, America’s largest bookkeeping service. With a Bench subscription, your team of bookkeepers imports every transaction from your bank, credit cards, and merchant processors, accurately categorizing each and reviewing for hidden tax deductions. We provide you with complete and up-to-date bookkeeping, guaranteeing that you won’t miss a single opportunity to save.

Want to talk taxes with a professional? With a premium subscription, you get access to unlimited, on-demand consultations with our tax professionals. They can help you identify deductions, find unexpected opportunities for savings, and ensure you’re paying the smallest possible tax bill. Learn more .

Bringing friends & family on a business trip

Don’t feel like spending the vacation portion of your business trip all alone? While you can’t directly deduct the expense of bringing friends and family on business trips, some costs can be offset indirectly.

Driving to your destination

Have three or four empty seats in your car? Feel free to fill them. As long as you’re traveling for business, and renting a vehicle is a “necessary and ordinary” expense, you can still deduct your business mileage or car rental costs even when others join you for the ride.

One exception: If you incur extra mileage or “unnecessary” rental costs because you bring your family along for the ride, the expense is no longer deductible because it isn’t “necessary or ordinary.”

For example, let’s say you had to rent an extra large van to bring your children on a business trip. If you wouldn’t have needed to rent the same vehicle to travel alone, the expense of the extra large van no longer qualifies as a business deduction.

Renting a place to stay

Similar to the driving expense, you can only deduct lodging equivalent to what you would use if you were travelling alone.

However, there is some flexibility. If you pay for lodging to accommodate you and your family, you can deduct the portion of lodging costs that is equivalent to what you would pay only for yourself .

For example, let’s say a hotel room for one person costs $100, but a hotel room that can accommodate your family costs $150. You can rent the $150 option and deduct $100 of the cost as a business expense—because $100 is how much you’d be paying if you were staying there alone.

This deduction has the potential to save you a lot of money on accommodation for your family. Just make sure you hold on to receipts and records that state the prices of different rooms, in case you need to justify the expense to the IRS

Heads up. When it comes to AirBnB, the lines get blurry. It’s easy to compare the cost of a hotel room with one bed to a hotel room with two beds. But when you’re comparing significantly different lodgings, with different owners—a pool house versus a condo, for example—it becomes hard to justify deductions. Sticking to “traditional” lodging like hotels and motels may help you avoid scrutiny during an audit. And when in doubt: ask your tax advisor.

So your trip is technically a vacation? You can still claim any business-related expenses

The moment your getaway crosses the line from “business trip” to “vacation” (e.g. you spend more days toasting your buns than closing deals) you can no longer deduct business travel expenses.

Generally, a “vacation” is:

A trip where you don’t spend the majority of your days doing business
A business trip you can’t back up with correct documentation

However, you can still deduct regular business-related expenses if you happen to conduct business while you’re on vacay.

For example, say you visit Portland for fun, and one of your clients also lives in that city. You have a lunch meeting with your client while you’re in town. Because the lunch is business related, you can write off 50% of the cost of the meal, the same way you would any other business meal and entertainment expense . Just make sure you keep the receipt.

Meanwhile, the other “vacation” related expenses that made it possible to meet with this client in person—plane tickets to Portland, vehicle rental so you could drive around the city—cannot be deducted; the trip is still a vacation.

If your business travel is with your own vehicle

There are two ways to deduct business travel expenses when you’re using your own vehicle.

Actual expenses method
Standard mileage rate method

Actual expenses is where you total up the actual cost associated with using your vehicle (gas, insurance, new tires, parking fees, parking tickets while visiting a client etc.) and multiply it by the percentage of time you used it for business. If it was 50% for business during the tax year, you’d multiply your total car costs by 50%, and that’d be the amount you deduct.

Standard mileage is where you keep track of the business miles you drove during the tax year, and then you claim the standard mileage rate .

The cost of breaking the rules

Don’t bother trying to claim a business trip unless you have the paperwork to back it up. Use an app like Expensify to track business expenditure (especially when you travel for work) and master the art of small business recordkeeping .

If you claim eligible write offs and maintain proper documentation, you should have all of the records you need to justify your deductions during a tax audit.

Speaking of which, if your business is flagged to be audited, the IRS will make it a goal to notify you by mail as soon as possible after your filing. Usually, this is within two years of the date for which you’ve filed. However, the IRS reserves the right to go as far back as six years.

Tax penalties for disallowed business expense deductions

If you’re caught claiming a deduction you don’t qualify for, which helped you pay substantially less income tax than you should have, you’ll be penalized. In this case, “substantially less” means the equivalent of a difference of 10% of what you should have paid, or $5,000—whichever amount is higher.

The penalty is typically 20% of the difference between what you should have paid and what you actually paid in income tax. This is on top of making up the difference.

Ultimately, you’re paying back 120% of what you cheated off the IRS.

If you’re slightly confused at this point, don’t stress. Here’s an example to show you how this works:

Suppose you would normally pay $30,000 income tax. But because of a deduction you claimed, you only pay $29,000 income tax.

If the IRS determines that the deduction you claimed is illegitimate, you’ll have to pay the IRS $1200. That’s $1000 to make up the difference, and $200 for the penalty.

Form 8275 can help you avoid tax penalties

If you think a tax deduction may be challenged by the IRS, there’s a way you can file it while avoiding any chance of being penalized.

File Form 8275 along with your tax return. This form gives you the chance to highlight and explain the deduction in detail.

In the event you’re audited and the deduction you’ve listed on Form 8275 turns out to be illegitimate, you’ll still have to pay the difference to make up for what you should have paid in income tax—but you’ll be saved the 20% penalty.

Unfortunately, filing Form 8275 doesn’t reduce your chances of being audited.

Where to claim travel expenses

If you’re self-employed, you’ll claim travel expenses on Schedule C , which is part of Form 1040.

When it comes to taking advantage of the tax write-offs we’ve discussed in this article—or any tax write-offs, for that matter—the support of a professional bookkeeping team and a trusted CPA is essential.

Accurate financial statements will help you understand cash flow and track deductible expenses. And beyond filing your taxes, a CPA can spot deductions you may have overlooked, and represent you during a tax audit.

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How to deduct business expenses while on vacation

Written by Alexandra Francel, EA, MST

Published Jul 7, 2023

Whether it’s summer or any other time of the year when you feel as if you just have to get away, there’s a big question on the minds of employers and business owners. Can I mix my business travel and a vacation, and if so, am I allowed to deduct those expenses?

Good news: Yes, it may be possible. With proper planning and recordkeeping, business expenses may be deducted, as long as certain requirements are met. There are rules and limitations on them, so be sure to help your clients understand what they need to do in order to be eligible for these deductions. Here’s what they need to know.

IRS guidelines

First, let’s go over some guidelines given by the IRS regarding travel expenses. The IRS states that travel expenses must be ordinary and necessary. They cannot be lavish, extravagant, or for personal purposes. Deductions for business travel can be available when someone must travel away from their tax home or main place of work for business reasons. A taxpayer is considered to be away from home when they are away for longer than an ordinary day’s work, and need to sleep to meet the demands of their work while away. Travel expenses for conventions are deductible if the attendance benefits the business.

When traveling within the United States, there are several ways business trips can take place. Either the main purpose of the trip is for business or the main purpose is pleasure. There are different types of deductions for each one, so let’s take a look at them separately.

Business trips that are 100% for business

For trips that are all business, make sure your clients establish the rule of having a prior set business purpose by scheduling your appointments and business purpose prior to leaving for your trip. When your trip is 100% business, the IRS states travel expenses incurred for yourself are 100% deductible. This includes all costs associated with travel by airplane, train, bus, or car between your home and your business destination.

Other expenses that are deductible include the following:

Fares for taxis or other types of transportation.
Shipping of baggage, sample, or display materials.
Use of your personal vehicle for business trips.
Lodging and non-entertainment meals (50% of meals).
Dry cleaning and laundry.
Business calls and communications.
Tips paid for services related to any of the above expenses.
Any other similar ordinary and necessary expenses related to this business travel.

To make sure these items are all deductible, make sure to document the purpose of the travel, and maintain proper receipts for the expenses incurred.

Mix of business and personal travel

When you have a trip that is primarily for business purposes, but extend your stay for vacation, make a personal side trip, or have other personal activities, you can only deduct your business-related travel expenses. However, certain weekends and holidays might be allowable for personal purposes depending on the planning. The IRS states that you can count weekends, holidays, and other necessary standby days as business days if they fall between business days. But if they follow your business meetings or activity, and you remain at your business destination for non-business or personal reasons, you can’t count them as business days.

For example, if you are at a business destination on a Friday, and also required to be there on the following Monday for business purposes, then the weekend days in between are considered business days. This is true even if you use the weekend for non-business activities. However, if your business ends on a Friday, and you choose to stay that weekend, any expenses incurred after the business day are not deductible.

When taking a trip that is business and family joins you, only those expenses that apply to you are deductible. For example, if you are traveling by vehicle, the entire cost would be deductible because you would have incurred that cost regardless of whether the transportation is used for business or leisure. However, if you are traveling by plane, only the cost of your airfare is deductible. For lodging expenses with family, the allowable deductible cost is what you would have paid for a single room rather than a double room.

In order to substantiate these expenses, make sure to keep proper documentation that shows what the rate of a single room would have been for the time away. The same applies for non-entertainment meals. You can deduct 50% of the non-entertainment meals relating to your individual expense—not the entire family’s meals.

Unfortunately, trips that are primarily for personal reasons or vacations are completely nondeductible. However, if you do conduct any business while you are at your destination, only expenses that are 100% directly related to your business are deductible.

Maintain good records

When planning your travels this summer or any other time of the year—business or personal—just remember that the IRS pays close attention to expenses incurred. Always make sure to keep logs, documentation, and receipts to properly support the business purposes and expenses associated with the travel.

For more information, please see IRS Publication 463 , Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses , which provides more detail regarding these expenses, including those that are out of the country, for conventions, and other venues and scenarios.

Note: All information provided above is relevant for the tax years covered in the above mentioned Publication. For future tax years, please be sure to reference any updates issued by the IRS.

Editor’s note: Check out the Intuit® Tax Pro Center for more IRS-related content . This article was previously published in the CPA Practice Advisor .

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Alexandra Francel, EA, MST, is a tax content analyst currently working on the Globalization team bringing Spanish to TurboTax at Intuit. She started with Intuit in 2019 after 18 years of experience in public accounting, where she provided tax services to individuals, small businesses, estates, and trusts. Alexandra enjoys working with taxpayers to help them learn, and become more familiar with, their tax situations so they can maximize their tax savings. More from Alexandra Francel, EA, MST

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Tax Deductions for Business Travelers

When you are self-employed, you generally can deduct the ordinary and necessary expenses of traveling away from home for business from your income. But before you start listing travel deductions, make sure you understand what the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) means by "home," "business," and "ordinary and necessary expenses."

Ordinary vs. necessary expenses

Business home, not home sweet home, transportation expenses on a business trip are deductible, fees for getting around are deductible, lodging, meals and tips are deductible.

Key Takeaways

Typically, you can deduct travel expenses if they are ordinary (common and accepted in your industry) and necessary (helpful and appropriate for your business).
You can deduct business travel expenses when you are away from both your home and the location of your main place of business (tax home).
Deductible expenses include transportation, baggage fees, car rentals, taxis and shuttles, lodging, tips, and fees.
You can also deduct 50% of either the actual cost of meals or the standard meal allowance, which is based on the federal meals and incidental expense per diem rate.

The IRS defines expense ordinary and necessary expenses this way:

An expense is ordinary if it is common and accepted in your industry
An expense is necessary if it is helpful and appropriate for your business

You can claim business travel expenses when you're away from home but "home" doesn't always mean where your family lives. You also have a tax home—the city where your main place of business is located—which may not be the same as the location of your family home.

For example, if you live in Petaluma, California but your permanent work location is in San Jose where you stay in hotels and eat out during the work week, you typically can't deduct your expenses in San Jose or your transportation home on weekends.

In this situation San Jose is your tax home , so no deductions are permitted for ordinary and necessary expenses there.
Your trips to your home in Petaluma are not mandated by business.

Go by plane, train or bus—the actual cost of the ticket to ride is deductible, as well as any baggage fees. If you have to pay top dollar for a last-minute flight, the high-priced ticket is a business expense, but if you use frequent-flyer miles for a free ticket, the deduction is zero.

If you decide to rent a car to go on a business trip, the car rental is deductible. If you drive your own vehicle, you can usually take actual costs or the IRS standard mileage rate. For 2023 the rate is 65.5 cents per mile. You also can add tolls and parking costs onto your deduction. This amount increases to 67 cents per mile for 2024.

TurboTax Tip: Even if you use the federal meals and incidental expense per diem rates to calculate your deductions, be sure to keep receipts from all your meals and incidental expenses.

Fares for taxis or shuttles can be deducted as business travel expenses. For example, you can deduct the fare or other costs to go to:

Airport or train station
Hotel from the airport or train station
Between your hotel and the work location
Between clients in the area

If you rent a car when you arrive at your destination, the expense is deductible as long as the car is used exclusively for business. If you use it both for business and personal purposes, you can only deduct the portion of the rental used for business.

The IRS allows business travelers to deduct business-related meals and hotel costs, as long as they are reasonable considering the circumstances—not lavish or extravagant.

You would have to eat if you were home, so this might explain why the IRS limits meal deductions to 50% of either the:

Actual cost of the meal
Standard meal allowance

This allowance is based on the federal meals and incidental expense per diem rate that depends on where and when you travel.

Generally, you can deduct 50% of the cost of meals. Alternatively, if you do not incur any meal expenses nor claim the standard meal allowance, you can deduct the amount of $5 per day for incidental expenses. You can also deduct incidental expenses, such as:

Fees and tips given to hotel staff
Fees for porters and baggage carriers

But don't forget to keep track of the actual costs.

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The above article is intended to provide generalized financial information designed to educate a broad segment of the public; it does not give personalized tax, investment, legal, or other business and professional advice. Before taking any action, you should always seek the assistance of a professional who knows your particular situation for advice on taxes, your investments, the law, or any other business and professional matters that affect you and/or your business.

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How to find deductions for travel expenses

With more consultants and business travelers hitting the road for business travel, it's time for a brush-up on what expenses are eligible for tax deduction while they're away. If you're unsure about what qualifies, read on.

Find out more about Business Taxes

by Grace L. Williams

Grace L. Williams is a journalist. Her areas of expertise include small business, career, personal finance, and inve...

Key takeaways

What is business travel or a business trip, what is a business-related travel expense, what business travel expenses are tax deductible, are there other tax deductions for travel expenses, tracking expenses on your business trip, importance of documentation, combining business and personal travel, special considerations for self-employed individuals, getting help with tax deductions for travel expenses, frequently asked questions.

Business travel is back after the pandemic, and with that increase comes the age-old question every business traveler must ask at least once: "What can I deduct as a business expense while I'm on the road?"

You've likely heard the term "write-off" somewhere and may have used it somewhere within your business circles. But what exactly is it? You might wonder if you can book first-class travel or five-star lodging and eat in fancy dining establishments and then submit them as business write-offs. The short, overarching rule for those specifics is no, you probably cannot, but there is more to eligible business travel expenses than that.

A man looks at his cell phone while boarding a flight for business travel. Business travel deductions fall into three categories: costs related to how you will get to your destination (travel), where you will stay (lodging), and what you will eat and drink when you are there and in transit..

So before you book travel arrangements on your credit card (hopefully a designated business credit card), read on for more information about making expensing your business travel less stressful.

Understand IRS guidelines for deductible travel expenses to maximize tax savings.
Proper documentation is essential for claiming deductions, including meals and entertainment, with a clear business justification.
Utilize tax professionals and leverage technology to ensure accurate deductions, compliance with laws, and maximum savings on travel expense deductions.

A woman in a window seat on an airplane checks her phone during a business trip. business travel or a business trip is defined as any travel conducted that is business-related.

Simply put, business travel or a business trip is defined as any travel conducted that is business-related. To be considered eligible as a business trip, the travel itself must meet the following criteria:

The trip must be conducted for legitimate business purposes, not as leisure time, vacation, or personal purposes.
The trip must occur outside the bounds of a regular commute to and from work (or the main place of business) and home.

If the trip meets these criteria, it falls under the category of a business trip. It also means that you can deduct travel expenses whether you are a business owner sending an employee on your behalf or a self-employed individual.

To better understand business-related travel expenses, it's a good idea to look at overall business expenses. A business expense is incurred as part of the regular day-to-day operations of your employer (or for you if you are a self-employed individual) to conduct the business. Under current Internal Revenue Service (IRS) laws, special rules allow portions of business expenses to be deducted from the overall business income. These expenses are considered tax deductible, which means they are applied before any taxes are. The umbrella term "write-off" comes from this business tax deduction category.

In business, eligible tax deductions can have a significant impact. Being able to deduct expenses can often reduce the total overall taxable income . Cumulatively, tax-deductible expenses will likely reduce the total bill when it is time to file your tax return.

A deductible business travel expense is one that you or an employee incur during travel directly related to conducting business. In both instances (a business expense or a business travel expense), it is essential to ensure the expense falls under the category of being for bona fide business purposes. This means that deducting the travel expenses must be something genuinely related to conducting or doing a bona fide business purpose. If it is, its cost can be written off as part of business or business travel-related expenses. It applies to self-employed individuals or employees traveling for an employer or business owner.

So what exactly can you expense?

A man works on his laptop in an airport while waiting for his flight to board. In order to legally deduct business travel, specific criteria must be met.

First and foremost, consider the basics, or the "Big 3" in business travel. Essentials here include these three actual expenses: costs related to how you will get to your destination (travel), where you will stay (lodging), and what you will eat and drink when you are there and in transit. Each category within the Big Three can be an eligible travel expense and, therefore, a tax write-off, but they come with some criteria worth exploring.

Transportation expenses: If you plan to travel by car, and you will either use a vehicle you lease long-term or your car, there are two choices related to how this mode of transportation might be expensed. One choice is known as the “ standard mileage rate ." Under current IRS allowances, the standard mileage rate deduction for self-employed individuals and employees is 65.5 cents per mile for business-related travel. The rate per mile would apply to any driving conducted to or from the business destination. It would also apply to any driving conducted while you are at the destination if it is business-related. For instance, once at the destination, if driving must be done to run errands, those miles can be added to the total mileage count.

The other vehicle expense option for a business trip is to itemize the individual expenses. Eligible business costs, in this instance, include the lease, insurance, fuel, costs related to the upkeep and maintenance of the vehicle, such as oil changes or tune-ups, and any major repairs on the vehicle, such as fixing a flat tire.

If you are renting a car as part of your transportation expenses and it falls under the ordinary and necessary business travel expense category, the cost to rent a car would qualify as an eligible business expense. Other vehicle-related expenses that qualify for travel deductions include tolls and parking fees.

Actual expenses method

The actual expenses method involves calculating the total cost of vehicle use and multiplying it by the percentage used for business purposes. This includes:

Depreciation
Garage rent
Vehicle registration fees
Lease payments

To calculate the percentage of business use, divide the total business miles driven by the total miles driven in the year. While this method can lead to larger deductions, it requires detailed record-keeping and more complex calculations than the standard mileage method.

Standard mileage rate

The standard mileage rate allows you to claim a fixed rate per mile driven for business purposes, plus parking fees and tolls. The standard mileage rate for business in the United States is 65.5 cents per mile. The IRS determines This rate annually based on a study of the fixed and variable costs of operating a vehicle for business reasons, such as gas, maintenance, and depreciation.

This method can be used for self-employment, business-related travel, or when using a vehicle for work as an independent contractor. However, personal use of the vehicle is not eligible for this deduction.

Ticketed travel: For ticketed travel, like flights or trips by train, the cost of your ticket can be expensed as a travel deduction if your class fare qualifies as an eligible and reasonable expense. This means that while you likely won't be able to deduct first-class fare, you can deduct what is known as the ordinary and necessary expense related to the fare, which covers classes such as economy. You can also expense costs incurred while en route, such as baggage fees. And, if you are waiting at an airport or train station, any meal costs, snacks, or drinks would also qualify as business-related expenses.

Meal expenses and entertainment: Business meals cut eligible business expenses but with some stipulations, including the standard meal allowance. While current IRS laws permit for up to 50% of a business meal to be deducted, like ticketed travel, rental cars, and other business-travel-related costs, the meal must fall under an ordinary and necessary expense to be eligible as a tax-deductible business expense. If you are tempted to go all out and splurge on your dining, you might find that it is not an eligible business travel expense.

But changes have been made to the entertainment category. While entertainment used to be an allowed business expense, it is sometimes no longer eligible to claim tax deductions. This means that if you expect to take clients out as part of client meetings or conduct business, be sure to read the fine print since you might discover you cannot claim entertainment as a legitimate business expense.

Lodging expenses: Business travelers must consider where they will sleep while away. To be considered eligible as a business expense, the location of your stay must be outside of the main place of business and require overnight accommodation. Notably, in this expense category, IRS rules stipulate that for it to be an eligible business expense, the lodging cannot fall into the extravagant or considered recreational category.

Remember: With each of the "Big 3" and all other related business expenses to be deducted, the expenses must be ordinary and fall under the category of reasonable business expenses. If you opt for pricey vehicles, tickets, meals, and rooms instead of the available moderately-priced alternatives, you risk losing eligibility as legitimate business expenses.

There are some other expenses anyone traveling for business should consider submitting as tax-deductible expenses.

Event fees: These could come into play if you travel to an event such as a conference, convention, or trade show. In addition to the Big 3, certain expenses related to attending these events would qualify as eligible business travel expenses. The expenses are deductible if the event has an entry or booth fee. While you are there, if you attend workshops, lectures, or courses that require materials such as a workbook or registration, these would also be eligible as tax-deductible travel expenses. And, if you are running a booth or table at an event and need materials or supplies, the cost to purchase them would also qualify as legitimate business expenses.

Incidental expenses: Any reasonable additional expenses you incur while traveling for a business activity can be considered incidental expenses. For instance, if you incur expenses on ground transportation, a rideshare fee, taxi fare, or a subway ticket qualify as business expenses. Laundry and dry cleaning services are also eligible business activities. In addition, indirect expenses like office supplies can be eligible business expenses.

Organization before, during, and after the business trip will help you avoid potential pitfalls or headaches when filing expenses or taxes. From the outset, one great way to separate your business trips and expenses from personal expenses is to have a single credit or debit card that you designate for business use only. This de facto "corporate" card will come in handy and be a best friend on the road since it automatically creates a tally of itemized expenses courtesy of the real-time accounting and monthly statements that come with it.

Beyond the lone card designated for business expenses, your meticulous record-keeping will greatly help you when it's time to account for everything. If you don't want to use a third-party software program or expense-tracking app to track your expenses, a simple solution is to use a basic spreadsheet that tracks the date, the reason for the expense, and the cost. To set this up, once you have incurred an expense, note it down using the aforementioned basic information.

While on the trip, another simple organizational tool is keeping all receipts and other applicable hard-copy records and materials in one designated place. A pouch or envelope will work fine as the place to keep these items. Make sure you read the receipt or record, and if it does not have information such as the name and address of the business, write it on the back before you stash it away. Finally, if a receipt is for something like a business lunch, ensure the date and information about the place of business are on the receipt. Then, write the name of the person you shared your time with and the reason for meeting up somewhere on the receipt.

Claiming travel expense deductions requires proper documentation. This includes retaining receipts and records for all expenses incurred during your business trip. For meals and entertainment expenses, you'll need to note the nature of the meeting, including who you met with, when, and the topics discussed.

It's worth noting that lodging expenses on non-business days may still be eligible for deductions if specific strategies are employed, such as incorporating “vacation days" between workdays. In such cases, the total cost of lodging for the trip can still be tax deductible even when no work is taking place on the weekend. However, meals and entertainment expenses without a clear business justification won't be deductible and must be paid personally.

A man and woman enjoy fall foliage after a business trip to the Northeast U.S. The non-business portion of business travel expenses may be viewed as taxable income if paid by the individual or company.

Allocating expenses between business and personal activities is essential to ensure accurate deduction claims. Expenses must be allocated based on actual usage, so the non-business portion of the expenses may be viewed as taxable income if paid by the individual or company.

To accurately allocate expenses between business and personal activities for tax deductions, follow these steps:

Track usage for a period of time.
Determine the allocation by proportionally dividing the expenses based on the amount of business and personal use.
Maintain proper records to support the allocation.

When combining business and personal travel, careful allocation of expenses and adherence to specific rules is important. Expenses related to the personal nature of the trip cannot be deducted; only those incurred for business purposes can be.

If traveling abroad, you must spend a minimum of 25% of your time conducting business to qualify as a business trip and claim travel expense deductions. If you conduct business for less than 25% of the time while on a trip, you can still deduct travel costs. This deduction must be proportional to the amount of time spent on business.

Rules for international travel

International travel has additional rules to consider when claiming travel expense deductions. As mentioned, you must spend at least 25% of your time abroad conducting business to claim travel-expense deductions.

If you use 25% or less of your trip for business purposes, you can deduct related travel costs in proportion to the time spent on work. This can help to make international business trips more affordable. For example, if 40% of your time is spent on business activities, you can claim the entire cost of airfare as a business expense.

Self-employed individuals should be aware of special considerations when deducting travel expenses, such as home office deductions and computer rental fees. Understanding these unique aspects can help self-employed individuals maximize their tax savings and ensure compliance with tax laws, especially regarding their tax home.

Home office considerations

Home office deductions can be claimed if the office is the primary place of business and is regularly used for business purposes. The IRS has specific guidelines for the regular use of a home office for business purposes, such as the office being used exclusively and regularly for business purposes.

To claim a home office deduction, you can use the simplified method the IRS provides. Here's how it works:

Multiply the allowable square footage of your home office by the prescribed rate of $5 per square foot.
The maximum allowable square footage is 300 square feet, so the maximum deduction you can claim using this method is $1,500 annually.
The simplified option allows for a standard deduction without the need for detailed record-keeping.

Deducting computer rental fees

Computer rental fees can be deducted if the equipment is used for business during the trip. The full cost of the computer rental may be deducted as a business expense.

To claim a deduction for computer rental fees from business travel expenses, you must provide relevant documentation demonstrating the rental fees paid, such as receipts or invoices. Proper record-keeping is essential to support your deduction and ensure compliance with IRS regulations.

Leveraging technology

Technology, such as expense tracking apps and online bookkeeping services, can simplify record-keeping and documentation for travel expense deductions. These tools can help you track and categorize expenses, making it easier to identify and compute deductible expenses for tax purposes.

Expense tracking applications can:

Generate reports and summaries of travel expenses
Be beneficial for tax filing and auditing purposes
Save time and effort in tracking and documenting your travel expenses
Ensure accurate deductions and compliance with tax laws

Leveraging technology in expense tracking can be a valuable tool for managing your finances.

Sometimes, you might need more help. This guide provides basic questions about business travel deductions and expenses. Still, you are not alone if you have other questions about what might qualify as a tax-deductible business expense. There are experts at LegalZoom who can answer specific questions and better advise you about both business expenses and business travel-related expenses.

You might have questions about whether specific costs related to your business qualify as ordinary and necessary expenses or wonder if percentages of a certain expense or the entire cost can be completely deductible. Additionally, professionals in the know about things like a specific tax home can help you sort out concerns related to your business so that you can always claim the proper travel expenses. For any consultant looking to get back into the swing of travel, help and practical tips are just a click away.

Understanding and maximizing travel expense deductions can save you significant money on your tax return. By familiarizing yourself with the requirements, maintaining proper documentation, and leveraging the expertise of tax professionals and technology, you can ensure accurate deductions, compliance with tax laws, and, ultimately, keep more money in your pocket.

What kind of travel expenses are tax deductible?

Tax deductible travel expenses include airfare, train/bus fares, taxi rides between an airport or station and a hotel, or from the hotel to a work location.

What are the three requirements for a traveling expense deduction?

To qualify for a traveling expense deduction, you must have a “business trip," leave your tax home, have most of the trip business-related, and plan the trip in advance.

How do I prove travel expenses for taxes?

To prove business travel expenses for taxes, use credit card slips with notes on the business purpose made at the time of incurring the expense.

Are daily travel expenses tax deductible?

Daily travel expenses from your home to a regular place of business are not tax deductible. However, you can deduct transport expenses when traveling between your home and a temporary work location outside the metropolitan area where you live and normally work. Additionally, ordinary and necessary travel expenses incurred while away from your home and your main place of business can be deducted.

How do I allocate expenses between business and personal activities during a combined trip?

Allocate expenses proportionally based on the amount of business and personal use for a period of time, and maintain proper records to support deductions.

7 Rules You Should Know About Deducting Business Travel Expenses

What Is Your "Tax Home"?

Charges on Your Hotel Bill

The 50% rule for meals, the cost of bringing a spouse, friend or employee.

Using Per Diems To Calculate Employee Travel Costs

Combined Business/Personal Trips

International business travel.

The Cost of a Cruise (Within Limits)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Helde Benser / Getty Images

The IRS has a specific definition for business travel when it comes to determining whether these expenses are tax deductible. The agency says business travel is travel that takes you away from your tax home and is "substantially longer than an ordinary day's work." It requires that you sleep or rest while you're away from home, and that you do so. The travel must be "temporary." This means it can't last a year or more.

Key Takeaways

You can deduct expenses that take you away from your tax home for a period of time that would require you to spend the night.
Your tax home is the city or area where your regular place of business is located.
You’re limited to 50% of the cost of your meals.
Your trip must be entirely business-related for costs to be deductible, but special rules apply if you travel outside the U.S.

What Is Your "Tax Home"?

Your tax home is a concept set by the IRS to help determine whether a trip is tax deductible. It's defined by the IRS as the entire city or general area where your regular place of business is located. It's not necessarily the area where you live.

Your tax home can be used to determine whether your business travel expenses are deductible after you've determined where it's located. You can probably count your expenses during travel as business deductions if you have to leave your tax home overnight or if you otherwise need time to rest and sleep while you're away.

Check with a tax professional to make sure you're accurately identifying the location of your tax home.

Charges for your room and associated tax are deductible, as are laundry expenses and charges for phone calls or for use of a fax machine. Tips are deductible as well. But additional personal charges, such as gym fees or fees for movies or games aren't deductible.

You can deduct the cost of meals while you're traveling, but entertainment expenses are no longer deductible and you can't deduct "lavish or extravagant" meals.

Meal costs are deductible at 50%. The 50% limit also applies to taxes and tips. You can use either your actual costs or a standard meal allowance to take a meal cost deduction, as long as it doesn't exceed the 50% limit.

The cost of bringing a spouse, child, or anyone else along on a business trip is considered a personal expense and isn't deductible. But you may be able to deduct travel expenses for the individual if:

The person is an employee
They have a bona fide business purpose for traveling with you
They would otherwise be allowed to deduct travel expenses

You may be able to deduct the cost of a companion's travel if you can prove that the other person is employed by the business and is performing substantial business-related tasks while on the trip. This may include taking minutes at meetings or meeting with business clients.

Using Per Diems To Calculate Employee Travel Costs

The term "per diem" means "per day." Per diems are amounts that are considered reasonable for daily meals and miscellaneous expenses while traveling.

Per diem rates are set for U.S. and overseas travel, and the rates differ depending on the area. They're higher in larger U.S. cities than for sections of the country outside larger metropolitan areas. Companies can set their own per diem rates, but most businesses use the rates set by the U.S. government.

Per diem reimbursements aren't taxable unless they're greater than the maximum rate set by the General Service Administration. The excess is taxable to the employee.

If you don't spend all your time on business activities during an international trip, you can only deduct the business portion of getting to and from the destination. You must allocate costs between business and personal activities.

Your trip must be entirely business-related for you to take deductions for travel costs if you remain in the U.S., but some "incidental" personal time is okay. It would be incidental to the main purpose of your trip if you travel to Dallas for business and you spend an evening with family in the area while you're there.

But attempting to turn a personal trip into a business trip won't work unless the trip is substantially for business purposes. The IRS indicates that “the scheduling of incidental business activities during a trip, such as viewing videotapes or attending lectures dealing with general subjects, will not change what is really a vacation into a business trip."

The rules are different if part or all of your trip takes you outside the U.S. Your international travel may be considered business-related if you were outside the U.S. for more than a week and less than 25% of the time was spent on personal activities.

You can deduct the costs of your entire trip if it takes you outside the U.S. and you spend the entire time on business activities, but you must have "substantial control" over the itinerary. An employee traveling with you wouldn't have control over the trip, but you would as the business owner would.

The trip may be considered entirely for business if you spend less than 25% of the time on personal activities if your trip takes you outside the U.S. for more than a week.

You can only deduct the business portion of getting to and from the destination if you don't spend all your time on business activities during an international trip. You must allocate costs between your business and personal activities.

The Cost of a Cruise (Within Limits)

The cost of a cruise may be deductible up to the specified limit determined by the IRS, which is $2,000 per year as of 2022. You must be able to show that the cruise was directly related to a business event, such as a business meeting or board of directors meeting.

The IRS imposes specific additional strict requirements for deducting cruise travel as a business expense.

How do you write off business travel expenses?

Business travel expenses are entered on Schedule C if you're self-employed . The schedule is filed along with your Form 1040 tax return. It lists all your business income, then you can subtract the cost of your business travel and other business deductions you qualify for to arrive at your taxable income.

What are standard business travel expenses?

Standard business travel expenses include lodging, food, transportation costs , shipping of baggage and/or work items, laundry and dry cleaning, communication costs, and tips. But numerous rules apply so check with a tax professional before you claim them.

The Bottom Line

These tax deduction regulations are complicated, and there are many qualifications and exceptions. Consult with your tax and legal professionals before taking actions that could affect your business.

IRS. " Topic No. 511: Business Travel Expenses ."

IRS. " Publication 463 (2021), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses ."

IRS. " Here’s What Taxpayers Need To Know About Business-Related Travel Deductions ."

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Maximizing Tax Savings: How to Write Off Deduct Your Family Vacation Travel Expenses as a Business Trip Expenses

10 Minute Read

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Antonio Del Cueto, CPA

April 8, 2024

Imagine you're a clever detective on a mission, where every clue you find is a piece of the puzzle to make your vacation a secret mission for work. As a business owner, you know that turning a trip into a business adventure can be like finding hidden treasure, turning your travel day and lodging into a tax deduction.

To do this, you plan each business day with care, filling it with business activities that are both ordinary and necessary to conduct business. It's like setting up a perfect disguise for your vacation, making sure every activity is business-related, so if an audit comes knocking, you're ready with your detective notebook filled with evidence. This secret mission requires smart planning to ensure your getaway can rightfully earn its place as a business-related trip.

Understanding Travel Expenses for Business Deductions

Let's learn about when you can use travel costs to lower your taxes. This is for when the travel helps your business. We will look at what costs are okay, how to know if a cost is for business or just for fun, and what proof you need to show it's for business.

What qualifies as a deductible business expense?

A cost is okay to lower your taxes if it's normal and needed for your work. Travel costs are okay if they help your business. This could be going to meetings or learning things important for your job. If your trip is mostly for work but you also have fun, you can still write off the work parts.

How to differentiate between personal and business expenses?

Knowing the difference between fun costs and work costs means you only use the work costs to lower your taxes. If your trip has both fun and work, only count the work parts. Use business cards for work costs to make this easy.

What documentation is required for business travel deductions?

You need to keep track of all your business travel costs. Keep all receipts, tickets, and other proofs. Also, write down why each trip was needed for work. This is important if the IRS asks about your tax deductions.

Maximizing Tax Savings on Business Travel

Now, let's talk about how to figure out which travel costs can lower your taxes the most. We will go over how to add up these costs and the rules to follow. This includes how to handle food costs on trips.

How to calculate deductible travel expenses?

To find out what you can deduct, add up all your business trip costs. This includes things like flights, hotels, and car rentals. Only include costs that were normal and needed for your work.

What are the IRS guidelines on deducting business travel expenses?

The IRS says your travel costs must be both normal and needed for your job. The trip should mainly be for work. You should also be away from your main work area for more than a day's work.

How to deduct food expenses during business trips?

You can use half of your food costs during trips to lower your taxes. Keep your meal receipts or use a set amount the IRS says is okay. Remember, very expensive meals might not count as much.

Can you deduct expenses for family on a business trip?

When traveling for work on a business-related trip around the country, you can deduct travel expenses for yourself, but not for your family. However, if your family members must spend time doing business at the place of business with you, their expenses may qualify as business related. To qualify for a tax home for longer period, such as five days meeting with clients, every expense you incur can be deduct 100. Make sure to only deduct transportation and accommodation expenses for the time doing business.

When filing your taxes, it's important to learn how to write off only expenses that are deemed “ordinary and necessary” for your business. If the trip is longer than a normal domestic travel and involves more paid and what you actually spent, you can deduct those expenses. However, expenses for family members who aren't directly involved in the business activities can’t write be deducted as a deduction you don’t qualify for.

What are the limitations for deducting family travel expenses?

Limitations for deducting family travel expenses on your tax return can be tricky. In order to deduct travel expenses, the trip must be entirely for business purposes. If you mix business and personal activities, you can only deduct 50 percent of your business-related expenses. You must also spend the majority of the days on your trip doing business activities in order for the entire trip to qualify as a business trip.

For a trip to qualify as business-related, you must leave your tax home and travel to a business destination where you will conduct business meetings or other activities related to business. If you extend your trip for vacation days or include entertainment expenses, those expenses may not be tax deductible . Be sure to track business miles and keep records of actual expenses in order to still deduct expenses related to business.

How to document family-related costs for business trips?

When documenting family-related costs for business trips, it is important to distinguish between expenses that are tax-deductible and those that are not. Small business owners who incur travel costs while traveling for business may be able to deduct their transportation expenses, such as their plane ticket and other travel-related costs. However, it is crucial to ensure that the primary purpose of the trip is business-related. If the majority of your trip is considered business days, you may still write off the expenses incurred during those days.

Before attempting to deduct travel expenses from your taxes, it is advisable to consult with a CPA to ensure that your expenses qualify as business-related. The IRS requires that the purpose of the trip be primarily for business in order to deduct the cost of the trip from your taxes. If you are traveling for business and have a few days meeting with clients, you may be eligible to deduct 50% of your expenses incurred during those days as tax write-offs.

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How to Make Your Travel Tax-Deductible in 2024

We all know there has been a boom in business and personal travel these last few years. Maximizing tax deductions on these travels can significantly reduce your tax liabilities.

In general, business travel expense deductions are only available to business owners. However, as you shall see, this doesn’t mean you don’t qualify.

This post explores the ins and outs of business travel deductions, ensuring you make the most of every business trip.

Business-related travel expenses are deductible

The IRS provides details on business travel tax deductions in IRS publication 463 , and the good news is the rules allow a variety of travel expenses to be deducted, including:

Airplane, train, bus, or car travel between your home and business destinations
Transportation costs like taxi fares from airports to hotels
Shipping of baggage and business materials
Use of a personal car for business purposes
Lodging and meals (subject to the 50% rule for meals)
Dry cleaning, laundry, business calls, and tips related to these expenses
Other similar expenses deemed ordinary and necessary

As with all tax deductions, maintaining detailed records of your expenses is key, including bank and credit card statements and receipts. This basic documentation is vital to substantiate your deduction during an audit.

Tools like Quicken make this process easy and organized. Just take photos of any documents you need and attach them to their underlying transactions.

Defining a business trip

A trip is considered business related if its primary purpose is business. Again, it’s critical to document the business reasons for your travel, particularly when combining personal activities or family time. The IRS audit guides provide examples of good documentation, including keeping minutes of meetings and maintaining schedules of conferences attended.

Family travel considerations

But what if you bring your family with you? Unfortunately, travel expenses for family members are generally non-deductible unless they’re employees of your business and their travel has a business purpose. If sharing a hotel room, the cost remains fully deductible as there’s no additional expense.

Mixing business with pleasure

When combining business with leisure, like attending a conference in Orlando, separate the expenses. The travel costs for the conference are deductible, but personal activities, like a day at Disney World, are not.

Non-business owners

If you don’t own a business, your tax deduction opportunities for travel are limited. One strategy is to invest in rental properties at popular destinations. Travel expenses for managing these properties, like visiting a rental condo in Orlando for maintenance check-ins or association meetings, are typically deductible.

Engage a tax professional

Tax laws can be complex and vary by individual situation. Consult a tax professional for advice tailored to your specific circumstances, especially for complex travel deduction scenarios.

Understanding and utilizing business travel deductions is a smart strategy for reducing tax liabilities. Always prioritize accurate documentation and stay informed about IRS guidelines. By doing so, you ensure that your business travel is not only productive but also financially savvy.

Remember, every journey offers opportunities, not just for business growth but also for tax savings. Plan your trips wisely, document meticulously, and consult professionals as needed to fully leverage the tax benefits of business travel.

Quicken has made the material on this blog available for informational purposes only. Use of this website constitutes agreement to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Quicken does not offer advisory or brokerage services, does not recommend the purchase or sale of any particular securities or other investments, and does not offer tax advice. For any such advice, please consult a professional.

About the Author

Charles Renwick

Charles Renwick is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He is the author of the best-selling book, All the Presidents’ Taxes , the founding member of the accounting firm CMR Associates , and an accomplished corporate executive.

Charles previously worked for Ernst & Young and Novelis Aluminum. A Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of Georgia, he holds degrees in accounting, economics, and political science. For three years, as a student, Charles worked for US Congressman John Barrow as a Congressional Staffer. Charles is also a member of multiple community organizations and serves on the State and Local Tax (SALT) Committee and the Forensic, Litigation & Valuation Services Committee for the Louisiana Society of CPAs.

He and his wife, Lauren, live in Covington, Louisiana, where he enjoys playing tennis, watching his kids play youth sports, and reading and writing about history, politics, and taxes.

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Tax Deductions: Right, Wrong, and Risky

Tax Benefits of Real Estate Investing

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Accounting | How To

Determining Tax Deductions for Travel Expenses + List of Deductions

Published August 15, 2023

Published Aug 15, 2023

WRITTEN BY: Tim Yoder, Ph.D., CPA

This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software .

1. Determine Your Trip Meets the Requirements of a Business Trip
2. Check the List of Business Expenses That Qualify for Deductions
3. (For Those Mixing Business & Personal Travel): Allocate Expenses

Bottom Line

The IRS considers deductible travel expenses to be any ordinary and necessary expenses you incur while traveling away from home on business. To get tax deductions for travel expenses, the trip must have a business purpose and be temporary (less than one year) and you must be away from your tax home for a length of time that exceeds your usual work day or be away overnight to get sleep to fulfill the demands of your job while away.

Key Takeaways

A qualifying business trip must take you away from home overnight long enough to require rest.
Most expenses incurred during a qualifying business trip are deductible, including meals on days off.
Partnerships, limited liability companies (LLCs), and corporations can directly pay or reimburse employees for business travel expenses and deduct them from their business returns.
Self-employed business owners will deduct their travel expenses on Schedule C, while farmers will use Schedule F.
Purely personal expenses on business trips, such as sightseeing, are nondeductible.

Step 1: Determine Your Trip Meets the Requirements of a Business Trip

A business trip for tax purposes is one that meets the following criteria:

There must be a business purposes for the travel
You are required to be away from your tax home
The trip lasts overnight or a period long enough to require rest
The trip is temporary

Business Purpose

Your trip must be an ordinary and necessary part of conducting your business for your expenses to be deductible. Below are some reasons you may decide to travel for business:

Meeting with clients or customers: If you travel overnight to meet with clients or customers for business purposes, such as negotiating contracts, discussing projects, or providing consultations.
Attending business conferences or seminars: If you travel to attend conferences, seminars, or trade shows that are relevant to your business activities, including acquiring new industry knowledge or networking with other professionals.
Training or professional developmen t : If you travel to attend training programs, workshops, or courses directly related to your business or profession.
Conducting in-person meetings or negotiations: If you need to travel to have face-to-face meetings or negotiations with business partners, suppliers, or other stakeholders.

Your tax home is not your residence but rather your principal place of business activity including the entire city or general location of your business. So, your business trip cannot be in the general vicinity of your principal place of business for you to be away from home.

Amount of time you spend at each location
Degree of business activity in each area
Relative significance of the financial return from each area
No regular place of business: If, by the nature of the work, there is no regular or principal place of business, then your tax home will be the place where you regularly live and where you travel to different job sites to perform your service.

For example, a self-employed repair person may not have a regular place of business because they spend each workday at a different customer’s location.

Overnight Stay

Overnight stays for travel purposes do not specifically mean staying from evening to the next morning. Instead, overnight means that the trip is longer than a typical day’s work and long enough for you to require rest. Resting in your car is generally not enough, but if you have to get a hotel room, then the trip will qualify as overnight regardless of when you sleep.

Transportation vs travel expenses: Local transportation at your tax home can be deductible without an overnight stay—if there is a business reason for the transportation, such as driving from your office to visit a client. On a tangent, when you travel overnight, your transportation is deductible, and so are things like lodging, meals, and incidental expenses.

Temporary Travel

For purposes of business travel, a temporary stay is one that is expected to last for less than one year. Open-ended trips are not temporary.

However, say you initially anticipate that your trip will last less than one year, but it later becomes apparent that it will last more than one year. The trip is a deductible business trip up until the point in time it becomes apparent it will last more than one year.

The IRS will also consider a series of assignments to the same location, all for short periods, that together cover a long period to be an indefinite assignment. Any expenses you incur from this type of trip will not be deductible.

Step 2: Check the List of Business Expenses That Qualify for Deductions

Your travel expenses must be business-related—unless an exception applies—to qualify for a deduction. However, if you incur expenses that are purely for personal pleasure, they are nondeductible.

Here is a list of business travel expenses that can be deducted.

Round-trip Transportation To-and-From the Destination

Transportation for a round trip to and from your temporary work location is deductible—and it could be anything that gets you to the location, including via your personal car. If you use your personal car, your costs are calculated using either the actual expenses or the standard mileage rate .

In addition, you can deduct additional round trips to return to home when you are not working.

However, the deduction for the additional round trips is limited to the cost you would have incurred if you stayed at the temporary location. Those costs could include meals and lodging.

The business purpose of the meals is your business trip and are thus deductible—even if you eat alone.
Meals on days off qualify.
Travel to and from meals is deductible—even on your days off.
The meals do not have to have a specific business purpose, such as meeting with a client.
For longer trips, lodging can include monthly rentals.
If you return home on your days off but keep the lodging at your travel location, then the lodging is still deductible if it is ordinary and necessary. For instance, the monthly rent of an apartment at your travel location would be deductible even if you return home on the weekends.

Transportation at the Destination

Once you arrive at your destination, you may need additional transportation to get around town—and these costs are deductible. The only exception would be if you travel to the destination for a purely personal reason like sightseeing on your day off.

Incidentals

Incidental expenses are minor expenditures associated with business travel. You can deduct the actual cost of any one of the following expenses:

Shipping of baggage and sample or display material between your regular and temporary work locations
Business seminar and registration fees
Dry cleaning and laundry
Business calls include business communications by fax machine and other communication devices
Tips you pay for services related to any of these expenses
Parking, tolls, and fees
Any other similar ordinary and necessary expenses related to your business travel

Step 3 (For Those Mixing Business & Personal Travel): Allocate Expenses

When trips are both business and personal, the allocation of expenses varies based on the primary purpose of the trip. Determining the primary purpose of your journey requires you to evaluate the time spent on business vs personal activities.

Primarily Business Domestic Trips

If your trip is primarily for business purposes, then the round-trip transportation is 100% deductible and does not need to be allocated to the personal portion of your trip. However, all other expenses, like lodging and meals, must be allocated to personal expenses for days where there was no business reason for staying.

For example, if your seminar ends on Friday and you stay until Sunday, then the lodging and meals for Saturday and Sunday are nondeductible.

Primarily Personal Domestic Trips

If the primary purpose of your trip is personal, then none of the round-trip expenses are deductible. However, you can deduct the business portion of meals, lodging, and local transportation that was incurred for a business purpose.

Let’s say you stay a couple of days after your family vacation to meet with a client. The lodging and meals for those extra days are deductible.

Business Foreign Trips

The allocation of travel expenses on foreign trips is slightly different from the rules above. Round-trip transportation for foreign trips must be allocated to business and personal based on the number of business vs personal days on the trip. This is different from the “all or nothing” rule for the cost of domestic round-trip travel.

If your spouse joins you on a business trip, you usually cannot deduct any of their expenses. However, if your spouse’s trip satisfies a business purpose, then expenses must be otherwise deductible by the spouse.

Generally, for the travel costs of a spouse, dependent, or any other person to be tax-deductible, they must work for the business or be a co-owner.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Are travel expenses tax deductible for business.

Yes, roundtrip travel is 100% tax deductible as long as the primary purpose of the trip is business. Once at your destination, expenses must be allocated between business and personal. However, all meals are deductible as long as the reason for your continued stay is business.

Can I deduct travel expenses for my employees?

Yes, you can generally deduct travel expenses for your employees as long as the expenses are ordinary and necessary, directly related to your business, and properly substantiated.

Is there a limit to the amount of travel expenses I can deduct?

Yes, there are some such as business travel on a cruise ship, where the expense is limited to $2,000 per year. Also, your expenses are limited to the non-lavish or extravagant cost of the trip, so you may want to be careful before booking a 5-star hotel.

Travel expenses are ordinary and necessary expenses you incur while you are temporarily away from home, so these expenses cannot be lavish in nature. To determine if a travel expense is deductible, it must be directly related to your trade or business.

When it comes to travel expenses, having well-organized records makes it much simpler to complete your tax return. Keep track of any records that may be used to substantiate a deduction, such as receipts, canceled checks, and other documentation.

About the Author

Find Timothy On LinkedIn

Tim Yoder, Ph.D., CPA

Tim worked as a tax professional for BKD, LLP before returning to school and receiving his Ph.D. from Penn State. He then taught tax and accounting to undergraduate and graduate students as an assistant professor at both the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Mississippi State University. Tim is a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor as well as a CPA with 28 years of experience. He spent two years as the accountant at a commercial roofing company utilizing QuickBooks Desktop to compile financials, job cost, and run payroll. Tim has spent the past 4 years writing and reviewing content for Fit Small Business on accounting software, taxation, and bookkeeping.

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Complete Guide To Business Trip Expense Management

Home » B2B » Complete Guide To Business Trip Expense Management

Among all controllable business costs, business travel and subsistence expenses rank second highest after employee wages. Business travel expenses are imperative as employees, business owners, and consultants must travel for myriad reasons. These include business expansion, project work, customer retention, client servicing, networking, training, and branch office management. Business travel is a principal driver of MICE tourism, catering to meetings, incentives, Exhibitions, and conferences, bringing large groups of employees, professionals, traders, and consultants together. Business trip expense covers a broad spectrum of costs comprising transportation, accommodation, meals, and other incidental expenses.

Organizations strive to control business travel costs while ensuring a better travel experience and policy compliance for the well-being of employees. Online expense and travel management software programs like Paxes help businesses control every business trip expense to improve ROI.

Types of business trip expenses

A business trip expense can include several expense heads according to the travel and expense policy of the individual organization. Each company develops its own travel policies according to the travel budget, business travel objectives, travel frequency, geographical coverage, and the number of employees undertaking business trips. These are standard types of business trip expenses in most business setups.

1. Transportation expenses

The cost of transportation to reach business destinations may include airfare, rail ticket, or fuel expenses. Companies can decide the type of transportation employees should use besides the reimbursement process. These may include toll and parking expenses. Reimbursing mileage at actual is common practice if employees use personal vehicles for business travel.

2. Accommodation expenses

Employees stay at hotels when going to outstation locations on business assignments. They need accommodation in upscale hotels, providing a safe and comfortable stay. Businesses also decide these hotel accommodation expenses for an employee.

3. Subsistence expenses

Employees must spend for food during business travel to sustain themselves. Companies reimburse bills for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All organizations allow employees to claim subsistence expenses for categories such as food and drinks.

4. Ancillary expenses

Finance teams and travel managers should list types of personal expenses, such as laundry, office stationary, tips, commuting, and entertainment expenses. These are minor expenses to support business travel.

What are the business travel expenses that employees can claim?

The following business travel and subsistence expenses qualify for reimbursement that the employee claims by submitting expense reports.

Travel expenses: Expenses for traveling by train, bus, plane, or car to the business destination from home.
Use of the personal car: Employees using a personal car for business travel can claim mileage reimbursement.
Ground or local transportation: Local transport such as cab service or public transport to travel between hotel and business location or airport and hotel.
Shipping expenditure: Expenditure for shipping baggage, exhibition display material, equipment, samples, and other material for business events.
Hotel stay: Expenses for temporary accommodation like lodging and hotel expenses. These comprise expenses for food and drink for self.
Laundry expenses: Employees can claim dry-cleaning and laundry expenses while on a business trip.
Official communications: Communication costs (Wi-Fi, telephone, and courier charges for business purposes).

Business travel cost: how can you calculate it?

Real-time tracking and monitoring of travel expenses are necessary for calculating travel expenses. Online travel management platforms enable finance teams to get real-time analytics and reports. They can determine travel expenses by employees, teams, departments, and routes for a particular period.

Create a comprehensive business travel budget template in excel format to track monthly travel expenses to assess budget utilization.
Recording every travel expense detail is challenging unless one uses an advanced software program. Enter trip details such as type of trip, type of expense, employee name, travel destination, and department into a business trip expenses excel template.
Calculate travel costs by summing up all expenditures under different heads, like accommodation and transportation.
SaaS-based travel management tools like Paxes allow the categorization of every expense to determine areas that account for higher travel costs.

Required documents for expense claims

To successfully claim travel expenses, one must submit numerous documents as suggested by the company. However, some of the documents are common for every organization such as:

Travel expense claim form provided by the organization which include personal and travel details of the employee
A copy of travel itinerary in detail should be attached with the expense claim form
All the receipts for business travel and meal expenses should be attached to the same
Some organizations may also require boarding pass along with the ticket
Approvals of various parties and heads involved should be provided with the whole paperwork

Tax implications of business trip expenses

The tax implications of business trip expenses are highly dependent on the country in concern. One should consult an accountant or tax professional in the country for filing tax as per the laws of specific country. Here are some of the key takeaways that is common for most of the countries:

Business trips expense such as transportation, meals, accommodations, etc. are tax-deductible
Companies should provide proper documentation such as invoices, receipts, etc. to claim tax deduction
Businesses should clearly differentiate between personal and corporate expenses
One should consult a tax professional for reimbursement regulations and international trips laws

Importance of expense management in business travel

Business travel expenses are among the top expenditure that an organization incur as daily activity. For growth, each business activity should be converted into the profit it is generated for the business. Monitoring expenses and managing it effectively can help cost control and increase the overall return. Effective cost management systems provide transparency and promote accountability. Additionally, accurate budgeting and expense management builds the pavement for future trips and optimize them through data.

How to control business trip expenses?

These tips are helpful for controlling and minimizing travel expenses without affecting the employee travel experience or curtailing business trip:

1. Creating a travel expense policy

Companies can bring discipline to business travel and expense processes by developing a travel expense policy. Employees get clarity about eligible expenses, avoiding expense deductions. Travel policy can avoid expense fraud and mitigate gray areas. You can include expense limits as per employee levels for greater clarity. The policy should cover expense reporting and reimbursement guidelines with proper timelines. Setting approval hierarchies in the policy will speed up business travel processes.

2. Avoid planning air travel on weekends

Employees should fly on weekdays or during off-peak periods to benefit from cheaper airfares. Booking travel well in advance ensures better cost-efficiency of air travel.

3. Leverage online travel management platform

Automation of travel processes like booking using SaaS-based travel management platforms like Paxes improves employee travel experience. The platform allows access to a curated inventory of hotels and other travel suppliers. Paxes is well-connected with multiple GDS and LCCs for saving travel costs while booking. Employees can save time with the app-based booking features.

4. Economical local transport

Encourage employees to use public transport wherever possible. Using shared taxis can reduce ground transportation costs. One can also negotiate with the hotels for free airport transfers.

5. Collect refunds without fail

Keep track of travel services eligible for refunds and ensure collecting these to save travel costs. One should also maintain a list of such dates for future references.

6. Explore loyalty benefits

Most travel suppliers encourage businesses to purchase their services by providing loyalty rewards. Ensure your employees use the same airlines or chains of hotels to get loyalty benefits, such as extra amenities and loyalty discounts.

7. Revise travel and expense policy periodically

As the business scales up, there are more employees undertaking business trips. Revisiting the travel and expense policy to make relevant changes is crucial. Travel management solutions allow integration and modification of travel policy.

8. Accommodation and meal expense limits

Companies should put a cap on the accommodation and meal expenses. The cost can vary depending upon the location and types of business travel. However, one should ensure to keep budget in mind before trading cost for experience. The best ways to manage meal expense is by using per diem system.

Choosing the right expense management tools

Manual management of expenses can result in errors and inefficiency. Hence, it is important for corporates to utilize simple to use management systems for record keeping and future analysis. The tools should provide real-time data and smoothen the reimbursement process. It should have the capabilities to be integrated with corporate travel management platform such as Paxes and popular HRMSs available in the market.

Strategies for pre-trip budgeting

Here are some of the points for pre-trip budgeting:

Set comprehensive and realistic budgets
Negotiate discounts with service providers
Refer to company travel policies
Clearly communicate expenditure limits to employees
Allocate funds for unexpected expenses or emergencies
Emphasize accurate and real time record-keeping
Establish a pre-approval process for significant expenses
Integrate budgeting tools with travel and expense systems
Establish a feedback loop for continuous improvement

Educating employees on expense management best practices

Any system or policy can’t work unless the employees are well aware about them. Travel admins and managements should ensure to provide training and communicate the basic postulates of company’s travel policy. They should further inculcate a feeling of ownership and considerably reduce the expenses. Employee education is a key component of successful expense management. Educated employees contribute to a culture of financial responsibility within the organization.

Small business travel expense management challenges

Small businesses face unique challenges in managing travel expenses. These include limited resources and manpower. Addressing these challenges requires creative solutions, such as the use of technology, negotiating favorable rates and terms with suppliers, and implementing cost-effective travel policies to ensure high ROI.

Optimizing business travel expenses is vital for controlling travel costs to improve ROI. These tips help businesses minimize travel expenditures and streamline the travel management program. Setting up a custom travel and expense policy is the first step to achieving cost optimization. SaaS-based travel management programs such as Paxes help organizations control travel costs by automating travel policy implementation. Paxes enhances the business travel program by ensuring a better travel experience and streamlining expense reporting and reimbursement.

Suggested Read: Major Benefits Of Automating The Travel And Expense Process

Business Trip Expense FAQs

What expenses are not eligible as business travel expenses.

Personal expenses like commuting to the permanent workplace location, purchasing gifts for family and friends, fines, and companion expenses do not qualify as business travel expenses.

What are business travel expenses?

Business travel expenses include costs that an employee may incur while undertaking a business trip to meet business goals.

What is a travel reimbursement policy?

The travel reimbursement policy describes the rules and procedures to claim and reimburse travel expenses employees may incur during business trips.

What are the three main business travel costs?

Transportation, accommodation and subsistence costs are the three main business travel costs.

Does commuting for work qualify as business travel?

No commuting is not business travel.

What qualifies as a business trip expense?

Business trip expenses typically include costs directly related to your work-related travel. This can encompass transportation, accommodation, meals, conference or event fees, and any other expenses necessary to conduct business while away from your usual place of work.

How should I keep track of my business trip expenses?

Keeping receipts, using expense tracking apps, and maintaining a detailed expense log are effective ways to record and track business trip expenses. It is essential to document expenses as you incur them to ensure accuracy and compliance.

What are per diem rates, and how do they work for business travelers?

Per diem rates are daily allowances set by employers or government agencies to cover meals and incidental expenses during business travel. These rates simplify expense tracking by providing a fixed amount for each day, regardless of actual spending.

Can I deduct business trip expenses on my taxes?

In many cases, you can deduct legitimate business trip expenses on your taxes, but there are specific rules and limitations. Consult a tax professional or the tax authority in your country for guidance on what qualifies and the allowable deductions.

Can I Combine Personal and Business Activities on a Trip?

Yes, you can combine personal and business activities on a trip, but it can affect the deductibility of expenses. To claim tax deductions, you must allocate expenses between business and personal use, only deducting the business-related portion.

What Are the Best Practices for Business Trip Expense Management?

Best practices for expense management include diligent record-keeping, adhering to company travel policies, using digital tools for tracking, seeking pre-approval for expenses, and promptly submitting expense reports after the trip.

How Can I Save Money on Business Trip Expenses?

Saving money on business trip expenses involves strategies like booking in advance, seeking discounts, using loyalty programs, opting for cost-effective accommodation, and minimizing unnecessary expenses while on the trip.

What If My Expenses Exceed the Budget?

If your expenses exceed the budget, it is crucial to communicate with your supervisor or travel manager promptly. They may approve the overage if it was necessary for business purposes, or they might offer guidance on how to manage the excess costs while ensuring future compliance with the budget.

What is the timeline for receiving reimbursement?

The timeline can be defined as expense submission, expense review and approval, processing, reimbursement payment.

Pratyush is a traveling enthusiast who always looks for innovations in business travel management. He has 5 years of experience writing content on corporate travel management and working closely with expert business travel facilitators.

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Writing Off Business Expenses in 2024: A Guide for Small Businesses

Writing off business expenses can lower your tax bill, and make paying for the items your business needs a little less painful.

But what does that mean, and how do you write off business expenses?

Most small businesses are considered pass through entities. That means the income and expenses from your business flow through to your personal income tax return. You report the income (or loss) from your business when you file your personal income taxes.

Tax deductions (or “write offs”) are subtracted from your income. They reduce your taxable income, which in turn reduces the amount of state, federal or local income taxes you’ll pay.

How To Write Off Business Expenses: Key Point

Your small business may be able to write off many business expenses by claiming them as deductions on your income tax returns. However, a few expenses are not tax deductible, or the tax deduction must be taken over time.

Myths About Writing off Small Business Expenses

There are some common misconceptions about tax deductions that can trip up small business owners. These include:

I can’t take deductions if I am self-employed or a freelancer..
Everything is deductible if I form an LLC or corporation.
Tax deductions only apply if I make a profit.
It’s not worth the paperwork to take deductions.
If I get a company vehicle, I can write off 100% of the costs.
Deductions will just increase my chances of being audited.

It’s important to separate fact from fiction so you can make the best financial decisions for your business.

Perhaps the biggest trap that entrepreneurs can fall into is overspending to get tax deductions. Even if you write off an expense, you still must spend that money in the first place. Be strategic about your expenses so you don’t wind up in debt.

Compare Business Tax Solutions

Tax software and services can save you time and money by simplifying the tax prep and filing process. Use Nav to find the right tax solution for your business.

Documentation Needed To Write Off Expenses

The IRS says that deductible business expenses must be “…both ordinary and necessary. An ordinary expense is one that is common and accepted in your industry. A necessary expense is one that is helpful and appropriate for your trade or business”

The type of business expense will help determine what kinds of records you need to keep. For business expenses, for example, the IRS says documentation may include:

“Supporting documents should identify the payee (the person or company paid), date of purchase, amount paid, proof of payment (such as a receipt), the date incurred, and a description of the item purchased or service.” This helps establish it was for an ordinary and necessary expense. Specific documentation can include:

“Canceled checks
Cash register tape receipts
Account statements
Credit card receipts and statements

Sometimes you may need a combination of these documents. For example, if you buy a series of items at an office supply store and paid for it with a business credit card, your credit card statement may show that you made the purchase, but the receipt can help establish what you purchased and that it was for business purposes.

Major Categories of Business Expenses

Here are some important categories business expenses you don’t want to overlook:

Business loan interest

If you have a small business loan and/or small business credit card you used to finance business expenses over time, you will probably be able to deduct the interest your business pays. Fees may be deductible as well, including business bank account fees.

Home office expenses

If you have a designated office space in your home, and you use it exclusively and regularly as your principal place of business, you may qualify for a home office deduction . You may qualify whether you own or rent.

You can use one of two methods to write off these costs. The regular method allows you to deduct actual expenses based on the percentage of your home used for business, while the simplified method allows you to base your deduction on the square footage of your home used for business purposes. For 2023, the simplified method offers $5/square foot, up to a total of 300 square feet.

Business use of a vehicle

You may be able to write off business use of a vehicle even if you don’t use it exclusively for business. (A vehicle used 100% for business purposes also provides tax deductions.)

Similar to the home office deduction, there are two options for deducting truck and car expenses: the actual expense method and the standard mileage rate method. For 2023, the standard business mileage rate is 65.5 cents per mile .

It’s crucial you keep careful track of business use of your vehicle by logging the date, miles traveled and business purpose of each trip. You may be able to separately deduct actual expenses for parking and tolls as long provided they are not commuting expenses.

Phone and internet expenses

If you need a cellphone, virtual phone number, or a landline for your business, you may be able to write off part or all of that expense. You may be able to write off part or all of your internet bill, even if you work from home. Be careful with this one: if you use your cell phone partially for business and partially for personal use, your tax deduction may be reduced.

Business meals

For the 2023 tax year, businesses are generally able to deduct 50% of the cost of a business meal if traveling away from home for business, or buying a meal while at a convention, for example. (There was an enhanced deduction for 2021 and 2022.) There are some restrictions; meals can’t be extravagant, for example, and special rules apply to entertainment events.

Business travel

Your business may be able to expense business travel expenses when employees need to travel from their tax home or main place of work overnight for business purposes. As always, they must be necessary and ordinary.

There are two methods that can be used here: the actual expense method or the per diem method which provides a fixed amount for meals, lodging and incidental expenses. (If you are self employed you can only use the per diem method for meals.) You can find per diem rates published by the General Services Administration here .

Legal and accounting expenses

Did you form an LLC or corporation? Did you hire an attorney to create a contract, or advise you on a legal matter? Purchase a legal form template?

Or perhaps you paid for accounting software or tax preparation software, bookkeeping services, or hired a tax professional like a CPA or EA to help you file your income tax returns.

And in 2023, you may need to pay a legal or accounting professional to help you file FINCEN forms .

These costs and professional fees are generally tax write-offs.

Business insurance

Businesses often need various types of business insurance: general liability insurance, property insurance, business interruption insurance, professional liability insurance, worker’s compensation insurance and more. Business insurance premiums can usually be written off.

Employee and contractor expenses

Whether you have employees on payroll, or you hire independent contractors to provide services to your business, you can probably write most of those costs off. (With regard to payroll taxes, you can’t take a deduction for the amounts you withhold from an employee’s pay for FICA taxes, which covers Social Security and Medicare, for example, but you can likely deduct the employer’s portion.)

You should also generally be able to write off bonuses and commissions provided they meet IRS requirements.

Employee benefits such as the amount your business contributes to employee’s health savings accounts (HSAs), health insurance, or retirement plans, employer paid insurance such as life insurance and pet insurance, and other benefits may be deductible.

If you are an owner-employee of an S corporation with greater than 2%, contributions to an HSA are taxable to the owner employee, but still deductible to the business.

Marketing and advertising

Businesses can typically write off the expenses associated with marketing their business. This could include paid advertising online or offline, website expenses, social media marketing, print materials like business cards or direct mail, and much more.

Education and training

Educational expenses your business covers for training such as workshops or conferences, as well as expenses for professional books or subscriptions are often deductible.

Startup costs

When you start a business, you’ll want to keep careful track of all expenses as some may be tax deductible. Businesses may be able to deduct up to $5000 in startup expenses and up to $5000 in business formation costs to set up a business entity such as an LLC, S Corp etc.

Some business taxes , like state income taxes, business property taxes or real estate taxes, and worker unemployment taxes, are generally deductible expenses.

Depreciation

Depreciation allows you to recover the cost or other basis of certain property over the time you use the property. You may be able to depreciate property such as real estate, vehicles, or equipment you use in your business or for income-producing activity. There are several methods of depreciation available, along with bonus depreciation. IRS Publication 946 discusses depreciation in detail or consult your tax advisor.

Running the Numbers Each Year

Each year, you’ll need to keep track of business income and expenses, and use that information to calculate your business profit and loss.

It will be a lot easier to keep track of your business expenses if you use a business checking account and a business credit card . Mixing personal expenses with business expenses may mean you’ll lose out on valuable deductions.

If you operate your business as a sole proprietorship, you’ll file Schedule C with your personal income tax return to report income or losses from business activities.

S Corporation shareholders usually file Form 1120-S and file a K-1 with their personal tax returns.

LLCs use different forms, depending on whether they have more than one member and whether they choose to be taxed as an S corp, for example. A single-member LLC will usually file Schedule C unless it has elected to be taxed differently.

Partnerships file IRS Form 1065 to report income and losses.

For your personal taxes, use Schedule A to list itemized deductions such as mortgage interest. That’s for taxpayers who choose not to take the standard deduction. These deductions can reduce your gross income on your personal taxes.

Setting up Accounting to Track Expenses

It’s a good idea to set up accounting software to track business income and expenses. Staying current on your business bookkeeping also has additional benefits beyond tad purposes.

If your business needs to borrow money, having this information handy may help. Some lenders (especially banks) may want to see profit and loss statements or other financial documentation, for example.

We Recommend the Following Accounting Software for Business Taxes

Here are business accounting software choices that can make it easier to track business income and expenses.

Key Takeaways

Small business owners, including sole proprietors, may be able to use a variety of deductions for reducing their tax bills.
Tax deductions reduce taxable income, and can result in a lower tax liability.
Keep good records of expenses, and use accounting software to help maximize deductions.

Be sure to consult IRS Small Business and Self-employed Tax Center and/or your tax professional for specific information.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much can you write off for business expenses.

You may claim as many tax deductions as you qualify for. You shouldn’t be afraid to take legitimate business tax deductions. However, excess business losses may have to be carried forward to future tax years.

Here are some of the top tax deductions for small business owners .

How do I write off expenses for my LLC?

Keep track of your business expenses, and keep documentation, such as receipts and records of purchases. You can write off many business-related expenses for your LLC. When you prepare your tax returns you can either use tax preparation software or work with an accounting professional to document your business income and expenses.

LLCs are pass through entities which means the income (or loss) from the business flows through to member’s personal tax returns. The form you’ll file to report LLC taxes depends on how many members the LLC has and how it elects to be taxed.

IRS Publication 3402 , Taxation of Limited Liability Companies can be helpful.

Are all business expenses 100% tax deductible?

No. Some business expenses are fully deductible, some are partially deductible, and some may not be deductible at all.

Example: business meals are usually 50% deductible, but if you buy meals for employees at a holiday party or team building event, they are likely 100% deductible. On the other hand, buying meals at a sports venue may not be deductible unless you can get an itemized receipt to qualify for the 50% meal deduction.

Do you need receipts to write off business expenses?

It’s best practice to keep copies of receipts for tax purposes. But they may not always be required. Alternative documentation may suffice, depending on the situation. For example, if a vendor did not provide a receipt, you may be able to document an expense with a copy of the invoice along with a canceled check or a charge on your credit card statement.

Gerri Detweiler

Education Consultant, Nav

Known as a financing and credit expert, Gerri Detweiler has been interviewed in more than 4000 news stories, and answered over 10,000 credit and lending questions online. Her articles have been widely syndicated on sites such as MSN, Forbes, and MarketWatch. She is the author or coauthor of five books, including Finance Your Own Business: Get on the Financing Fast Track. She has testified before Congress on consumer credit legislation.

Have at it! We'd love to hear from you and encourage a lively discussion among our users. Please help us keep our site clean and protect yourself. Refrain from posting overtly promotional content, and avoid disclosing personal information such as bank account or phone numbers. Reviews Disclosure: The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the credit card, financing and service companies that appear on this site. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card, financing and service companies and it is not their responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

Credits & Deductions

INFORMATION FOR...
Businesses & Self-Employed
Earned Income Credit (EITC)
Child Tax Credit
Clean Energy and Vehicle Credits
Standard Deduction
Retirement Plans

Forms & Instructions

POPULAR FORMS & INSTRUCTIONS
Form 1040 Instructions
Form 4506-T
POPULAR FOR TAX PROS
Form 1040-X
Circular 230

Here’s what taxpayers need to know about business related travel deductions

Here are some details about these valuable deductions that all business travelers should know.

Business travel deductions are available when employees must travel away from their tax home or main place of work for business reasons. The travel period must be substantially longer than an ordinary day's work and a need for sleep or rest to meet the demands the work while away.

Travel expenses must be ordinary and necessary. They can't be lavish, extravagant or for personal purposes.

Employers can deduct travel expenses paid or incurred during a temporary work assignment if the assignment length does not exceed one year.

Travel expenses for conventions are deductible if attendance benefits the business and there are special rules for conventions held outside North America .

Deductible travel expenses while away from home include the costs of:

Travel by airplane, train, bus or car between your home and your business destination.
Fares for taxis or other types of transportation between an airport or train station to a hotel, from a hotel to a work location.
Shipping of baggage and sample or display material between regular and temporary work locations.
Using a personally owned car for business which can include an increase in mileage rates .
Lodging and non-entertainment-related meals .
Dry cleaning and laundry.
Business calls and communication.
Tips paid for services related to any of these expenses.
Other similar ordinary and necessary expenses related to the business travel.

Self-employed or farmers with travel deductions

Those who are self-employed can deduct travel expenses on Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business (Sole Proprietorship) .
Farmers can use Schedule F (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Farming .

Travel deductions for the National Guard or military reserves

National Guard or military reserve servicemembers can claim a deduction for unreimbursed travel expenses paid during the performance of their duty .

Recordkeeping

Well-organized records make it easier to prepare a tax return. Keep records, such as receipts, canceled checks, and other documents that support a deduction.

More information:

Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
IRS updates per diem guidance for business travelers and their employers

Subscribe to IRS Tax Tips

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How to Get a Business Class Upgrade on Turkish Airlines

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Table of Contents

Turkish Airlines upgrade overview

Benefits of upgrading to turkish airlines business class, how to earn turkish miles&smiles, get turkish airlines miles fast, the bottom line.

Turkish Airlines offers one of the best business class experiences in the world. That gives travelers even more reason to try to escape the airline's economy class experience for the comforts of business class.

But, how can you upgrade your Turkish Airlines flight to business class? And how much will it cost you?

All Turkish Airlines passengers are able to upgrade their economy class ticket using Miles&Smiles miles. In addition, top-tier Turkish Airlines elites get a couple of business class upgrade vouchers each year.

How to get a free Turkish Airlines upgrade

The only way to score a free business class upgrade on Turkish Airlines is by earning Miles&Smiles Elite Plus elite status.

Upon reaching this top-tier Elite Plus status, travelers earn two cabin upgrade vouchers — one voucher valid for each year of the two-year elite status year.

Elite Plus members can redeem these upgrade vouchers to upgrade from economy to business class, regardless of whether the member paid cash or redeemed miles.

» Learn more: The beginner's guide to flying first or business class

Turkish Airlines upgrade cost using miles

Turkish Airlines charges the same price to upgrade into business class regardless of whether you paid miles or cash for your original ticket and regardless of your original booking fare class.

For flights between North America and Europe (including Turkey), travelers have to pay 85,000 Miles&Smiles miles each way to upgrade from Turkish Airlines economy to business class.

» Learn more: The best airline credit cards right now

Turkish Airlines last-minute upgrades

Turkish Airlines makes it easy to upgrade a Turkish Airlines flight within 24 hours of departure. These upgrades don't require Turkish Airlines award availability. Instead, if there's a business class seat available on your flight, you can pay Miles&Smiles miles to upgrade to it.

These appropriately named "Last-Minute Upgrades" are only applicable at Turkish Airlines check-in counters.

All Miles&Smiles members are eligible to take advantage of these upgrades — as long as you already have enough miles in your account. And like other Turkish Airlines mileage upgrades, you can apply an upgrade even if you originally booked your flight with miles.

Restrictions on Turkish Airlines upgrades

Turkish Airlines places few restrictions on its mileage upgrade program. Travelers should just keep two things in mind:

Valid on Turkish Airlines flights only. Travelers can't upgrade codeshare flights operated by other airlines. You must be traveling on a Turkish Airlines flight to utilize this upgrade option. If you're flying on another airline, contact Miles&Smiles to see if you can apply a Star Alliance Upgrade Awards (SAUA).

Companion tickets cannot be upgraded. Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles travelers booked on a cash ticket can opt to add a companion to their reservation for a discounted award price. If you take advantage of this booking option, you won't be able to upgrade the companion ticket to business class.

The biggest benefit of a Turkish Airlines business class upgrade is — of course — flying in a business class seat. And Turkish Airlines offers a pretty spectacular business class product , often landing it on lists of best business class products in the world.

Turkish Airlines business class covers the basics with seats that recline into fully flat beds, large in-flight entertainment screens and power outlets. Plus Turkish Airlines business class passengers get at least 1 GB of free in-flight Wi-Fi.

However, onboard catering is where Turkish Airlines really excels. Turkish Airlines goes so far as to have "Flying Chefs" on board to serve you meals on real porcelain tableware.

This over-the-top experience has earned Turkish Airlines the award for the world's best business class catering in the 2023 Skytrax World Airline Awards.

(Photo courtesy of Turkish Airlines)

Travelers who upgrade to Turkish Airlines business class will get almost all of the perks as passengers who originally booked business class. In addition to the onboard experience, those perks include greater luggage allowance, lounge access and priority check-in.

However, one benefit that upgraded travelers won't get is additional miles. If you originally booked an economy cash ticket, you'll still earn miles based on your original economy booking fare class — not based on your upgraded business class ticket.

The best way to upgrade your Turkish Airlines flight is by using Miles&Smiles miles. The good news: Miles&Smiles miles are easier to accumulate than you might realize. That's because Turkish Airlines is a transfer partner of several major U.S. transferable point programs .

You can transfer points to Miles&Smiles at a 1:1 transfer ratio from the following three programs:

Capital One miles .

Citi ThankYou points .

Bilt Rewards points .

In addition, you can transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles at a 3:1 ratio. Plus, you'll get a 5,000-mile bonus for transferring at least 60,000 Bonvoy points. That means a transfer of 60,000 Bonvoy points would net a total of 25,000 Turkish miles.

» Learn more: When to use credit card points and when to transfer them to airlines

Two transferable points currencies programs partner with Turkish Airlines, including Citi ThankYou and Capital One Miles , both of which offer a 1:1 transfer ratio.

If you need to earn a bunch of Miles&Smiles miles quickly, though, consider applying for one of these cards and earning the sign-up bonus.

on Citibank's application

Enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.

Earn a bonus of 20,000 miles once you spend $500 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $200 in travel.

Earn 60,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. Plus, for a limited time, earn a total of 10 ThankYou® Points per $1 spend on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024.

• 5 miles per $1 on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.

• 2 miles per $1 on all other purchases.

• 5 miles per $1 on hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel.

• 1.25 miles per $1 on all purchases.

• 3 points per $1 on air travel and hotels, supermarkets, gas stations and restaurants.

• 1 point per $1 on all other purchases.

Turkish Airlines business class is one of the best business class experiences in the world. That makes it worth learning about how to upgrade to Turkish Airlines business class.

However, most travelers should try to use Turkish Miles&Smiles to book a business class award outright rather than paying to upgrade. The mileage cost to book a Turkish Airlines business class award matches the mileage cost required to upgrade your flight. If you've already paid for an economy ticket, consider if it's worth the miles to upgrade to business class.

Finally, remember that "last-minute upgrades" aren't capacity controlled. That means you can upgrade to business class if there's any business class seat available and you have the miles.

How to maximize your rewards

You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2024 , including those best for:

Flexibility, point transfers and a large bonus: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

No annual fee: Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card

Flat-rate travel rewards: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

Bonus travel rewards and high-end perks: Chase Sapphire Reserve®

Luxury perks: The Platinum Card® from American Express

Business travelers: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

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The 5 best alternatives to CWT in 2024

1. travelperk, travelperk noteworthy features.

An intuitive, user-friendly online booking platform—all traveller data, preferences, and loyalty points can be stored to use whenever needed.
Integrated travel policy and approval flows to streamline the booking process.
A simplified travel expense process with real-time expense reports.
24/7 business travel assistance with a target 15-second response rate from the 7* customer care team.
TravelCare , a complete and modern travel safety and alerts system that provides business travellers with peace of mind.
Centralised and single invoicing for all business travel, removing the need to send invoice requests and reminders.
A huge catalogue of integrations with third-party software .

How customers rate TravelPerk

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TravelPerk pricing

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2. sap concur.

Concur Expense streamlines expense management and auditing and automates expense reports.
Concur Invoice can be used to automate and integrate account payable processes and invoice validation and gain better visibility into spending.
And lastly, Concur Travel lets employees book business travel on their own via an extensive network of travel suppliers.

The main features of SAP Concur

Travel, expense, and invoice management in one platform
Automated expense reports and management
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Three-way match, analysing purchase orders, receipts, and invoices for every payment
A consolidated dashboard with all your corporate travel data and customisable reports
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CWT vs. SAP Concur

The main features of ctm.

An intuitive mobile app, from which travellers can plan, book, and change travels on the go
A self-serve online booking tool to find and book the best deals
Competitive fares and a strategic budget control, enabling you to benchmark employees’ spending and save money
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Industry-specific solutions for sports, academic travel, small businesses, and more

CWT vs. CTM

4. fcm travel, the main features of fcm travel.

Simple and intuitive bookings managed through the platforms
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A mobile app to enable travellers to manage and update bookings on the go

CWT vs. FCM Travel

5. bcd travel, the main features of bcd travel.

Real-time alerts in BCD’s mobile app to make sure all travellers are safe
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TripSource®, a tool allowing admin staff and travellers to manage trips in one place
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CWT vs. BCD Travel

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Factors influencing the cost of a will
Average costs
Types of will preparation services
Tips for choosing the right service
How do different types of wills work?

Average Cost of a Will

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The cost of a will could range from nothing to $8,000, depending on how you make it.
If your estate is more complex, it will likely cost you more money to make a will.
Every expert we talked to agreed having some kind of will is better than none at all.

Planning for what happens after you die isn't a fun topic, but it's necessary to make sure your family can carry out your final wishes. A will specifies what becomes of your assets and who is to care for any of your minor children when you're gone. We talked to several experts to help estimate the cost of creating a will and other estate planning documents. The cost ranges on these items vary significantly. Whatever your budget, every expert we talked to agreed that having some form of a will is better than not having one at all. Most recommended creating a will as soon as possible once you become an adult.

This article provides helpful information that readers can harness when comparing will preparation services. This can prove highly valuable when budgeting for estate planning costs.

Factors influencing the cost of a will

Complexity of the estate .

One major variable impacting the expense associated with creating a will is the complexity of one's estate. This is a major consideration when comparing will preparation services.

If you run a business, have lots of assets, have a large number of children or grandchildren, or want to leave money to charitable causes, you will need to incorporate these decisions into your will.

In the event that you own a business, for example, you need to determine what will happen to ownership of that entity should you pass on.

Past that, if you have a lot of assets, figuring out which of your beneficiaries gets each individual asset can prove time-consuming. If you are in this situation, it can prove helpful to draw up a list of all your assets to make sure you account for everything that will need to be covered in this legal document.

Another consideration is charitable contributions. Do you want to give money to charitable causes when you move on? If so, be sure to draw up a list of which causes you wish to donate to, as well as how much you wish to give.

The geographic location of the individual or couple in need of the will will be important, too.

Patrick Hicks , head of legal at Trust and Will, says higher-cost locations also usually require more than just a will for estate planning.

"In many cases in those high-price locations, it's incredibly uncommon to have that will alone," Hicks says. "So that $1,500 you might see for a will in San Francisco is almost never going to be the option chosen for a variety of reasons. A will in Topeka might cost $500 and be suitable, but you'll need to pay more in San Francisco."

Average costs

Jack Hales, an estate and probate attorney at Hales and Sellers , said the cost of your estate plan can vary widely depending on what you need done.

"At the absolute lowest end, if you need a simple will, powers of attorney, and nothing fancy, it'll cost $750 for an individual. For a married couple, it's $1,200. Once you get into setting up an estate plan with a revocable trust and more, it'll cost at least $3,000. And then, depending on your assets, you may add a few extra hundreds or thousands."

DIY will kits

There are do-it-yourself (DIY) will kits you can access online, and they cost less than $50. These are perfect examples of cost-effective will preparation options. There is even a company, Do It Yourself Documents, LLC, that offers a free template you can use to put together your last will and testament. However, the website offering this free document emphasizes that it may not comply with laws in all U.S. states.

Some states allow holographic wills, which are handwritten notes. These frequently require notarization, which comes with a small fee, but other than that, they cost nothing but the cost of the paper on which they are written.

"If you are going to draft a holographic will, make it as comprehensive as possible so that it doesn't create issues for your family after you pass away," says Erin Bury , CEO of online will platform Willful. "And I would note that the holographic wills are not valid in certain states."

Online legal services

There are several websites you can use to create a will from the comfort of your own home, including Trust and Will and Willful . These websites will offer templates for your financial situation and the state you live in, created by local lawyers. The cost ranges from $99 to $200.

Hiring an attorney for personalized service

This is the most traditional way many people think about creating a will, where you sit down with a lawyer and go over your situation. You'll get customized estate planning documents, and the cost for a lawyer varies significantly. You may pay as little as $250 or as much as $8,000 or more.

"I would think of it as an investment or an insurance plan," says Rochelle Schultz , an attorney with the estate planning law firm Weinstock Manion. "It's not something that you're going to need to do often, it's not a cost you're going to incur forever."

Most of the time when you are using a lawyer to craft a will, you'll be paying by the hour. If you have many questions to ask, it will cost you more. Bury recommends going into the office with some key decisions already made. She says you can find resources online about common decisions in the estate planning process and prepare your answers ahead of time.

Lawyers may also charge different rates commensurate with their level of experience in the field.

Visiting multiple lawyers' offices is the main way to get a price comparison, though some sites and firms do have rates listed. There aren't "will marketplaces" similar to student loan sites like Credible student loans and Splash Financial student loans , for example.

"Honestly, it's troubling how hard it is for an individual consumer to understand the price structures, because you don't know what you're gonna get even when you're sitting in the lawyer's office," Hicks says.

Notarization

Another minor consideration is the cost associated with getting a will notarized. This isn't a significant cost and will usually run you about $10, says Indrika Arnold , a senior wealth advisor at The Colony Group.

What are the fee structures for a will?

You may be charged:

Hourly: You'll pay by the hour for the time spent crafting your will.
Flat fee: You'll pay a predefined set rate to create your will.
On an à la carte basis: You'll decide what estate planning documents you want to include and pay per item. This is a rarer option.

Types of will preparation services

Online will creation platforms.

There are many online platforms interested parties can use to put their will together. Several organizations have even put together short lists of the most effective platforms allowing interested parties to create wills online.

The National Council on Aging, Inc., an organization that advocates for people who are elderly, put together a list of top ways to craft a will without hiring a lawyer.

Traditional legal consultation

Individuals interested in creating wills have frequently worked with legal professionals, a route that could help reduce the risks of making mistakes when putting together a will. Working with an expert in such a manner could potentially provide a substantial return in the form of greater certainty.

Tips for choosing the right service

Assessing your estate's complexity .

There are many different variables that can contribute to the complexity of your estate, including whether you run a business, have a large number of children and/or grandchildren, what assets you have, whether you want to donate to charity in your will and your geographic location.

If your situation is straightforward, a simple solution like an online will might fulfill all your needs. However, your situation might be far more elaborate, putting you in a situation where you can benefit significantly from hiring a lawyer.

Be sure to consider how important it is for you to manage the legal risks associated with creating a will, in other words how things can turn out if you don't hire a lawyer to help craft one of these legal documents.

How often should you update your will?

Most of the experts we spoke with defined wills as living, breathing documents and suggest you should update them every five to ten years or whenever you undergo a major life event such as childbirth or a divorce. Bury recommends reviewing your will annually, even if you don't make any changes to it.

The cost of updating your will varies depending on the complexity and the firm you use. Small changes using a lawyer may cost you a few hundred dollars, while updating your will through an online platform may only cost you $20.

What other documents often come along with a will?

The experts we spoke with agreed that it's uncommon to get a will by itself, and that many times there are common documents that you'll combine with it to create your comprehensive estate plan. These may include:

Durable power of attorney: A durable power of attorney gives legal authority for one person to act on behalf of another person to manage their property or financial affairs. In estate planning, a durable power of attorney comes into play when you are unable to make decisions for yourself due to mental or physical disability.
Healthcare power of attorney: A health care power of attorney appoints someone to make medical decisions for you if you are no longer able.
Revocable trust: Trusts are designed to have a trustee manage and distribute the assets to beneficiaries after a person's death. Revocable trusts allow the person to change its instructions or terminate the trust entirely during their lifetime. With a revocable trust, beneficiaries may avoid probate court and guardianship or conservatorship proceedings.

Top pieces of expert advice for creating a will

The cost of creating a will varies quite a bit, ranging from less than $100 if you want to use an online service to thousands of dollars if you want to hire a lawyer to help craft this legal document.

You can potentially create a will for free, but taking this route will not provide you with the expert legal advice that can help out significantly when drawing up a will. Further, if you need to get a will notarized, it will come with a small fee.

Hiring an attorney can provide personalized legal advice, help address complex legal needs and ensure compliance with state laws.

There are many online services that can help you set up a will, but be sure to use one that has strong online reviews, clear explanations of what services are provided, and attorney assistance if necessary.

For starters, you can be sure to perform an accurate assessment of your estate's needs. Past that, it can be helpful to review several different services and be sure you know exactly what each one offers its users. By keeping these variables in mind, you can pick a cost-effective solution that meets your needs.

Editorial Note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews, or recommendations expressed in this article are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Read our editorial standards .

Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.

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As Illinois lawmakers tinker with bills for prescription drugs, worry sets in

Why do lawmakers want to risk increasing the cost of prescription medications, a small business owner asks..

A retiree holds several prescription drug pills in her hand.

The cost of prescription drugs could increase in Illinois under legislation being considered by state lawmakers, and that concerns one small business owner.

Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP

Affordable prescription drugs are not a luxury. They’re essential and medically necessary. They’re crucial for businesses responsible for providing health care coverage to their employees, and they’re critical for families like mine who find themselves at the pharmacy counter to treat life-threatening health conditions.

I know firsthand the importance of affordable prescriptions. When one of my twin sons had a kidney transplant two years ago, access to prescription drugs was a critical part of his journey back to health.

And as the executive director of the Midwest Business Association, I understand how employers rely on flexible health plans to keep costs down for their business and provide affordable, high-quality coverage to their employees.

SEND LETTERS TO: [email protected]. To be considered for publication, letters must include your full name, your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be a maximum of approximately 375 words.

Our association keeps a close eye on issues that may impact businesses. Illinois House Bill 4548, regarding pharmacy benefit managers, would add a $10.49 professional dispensing fee to many prescriptions. Increasing health care costs for Illinois families and businesses can cripple employers, employees and their children.

It would also prohibit certain pharmacy benefits that keep medications affordable and accessible while allowing big drug companies to continue to charge sky-high prices. That’s a bitter pill to swallow.

What I know is that families like mine, the small businesses we work with and their employees need affordable prescription drug coverage. The focus and attention should be on the real cause of high prescription drug prices. Bottom line: The big drug companies that make enormous profits off Illinois businesses and hard-working families should not harm the families and businesses they serve.

Blevian Moore, executive director, Midwest Business Association, South Holland

Speeding on expressways is the problem

I don’t get it. The article quoting city officials in “Could 25 mph limit make ‘dramatic difference?’ ” starts with “Hundreds of Chicago lives could be saved from traffic crashes every year.” Then it goes on to say that “roadway fatalities crested with more than 180 deaths in 2021" and ebbed to 115 last year.

If this is the case, how is it possible that lowering the speed limit on certain corridors would save “hundreds” of lives? The math doesn’t add up.

The real problem is on the expressways, where an unacceptable number of people unconscionably drive at 80 to 100 mph. I know because I experience it every time I go out. Ald. David Moore (17th) is correct in questioning how the police can enforce the lower speed limit. They can’t even enforce the existing limit.

But more to the point, I hope that law enforcement can do more to control the expressways, which are far more dangerous than the city streets.

Mel Theobald, Printers Row

Cutting speed limit to 25 mph could make ‘dramatic difference’ in traffic deaths, experts tell City Council

Drivers, pedestrians and cyclists can make roads safer

Lowering the speed limit in Chicago will not stop people from speeding. Most drivers do not obey the 30 mph limit currently in place. Anyone who has driven on or walked across any street in the city can attest.

The financial burden associated with replacing all of the signs alone is wasteful. Enforcing such a limit is nearly impossible. Police will be accused of wrongfully pulling people over, and the speed cameras will ring like cash registers.

If drivers would follow the current speed limits, if pedestrians would look up when crossing the street and if cyclists would obey the traffic laws, more lives could be saved than by lowering the speed limit.

Joe Ferro, Garfield Ridge

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How to Write Off Your Vacation as a Business Expense
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Business calls and communication. Tips paid for services related to any of these expenses. Other similar ordinary and necessary expenses related to the business travel. Self-employed individuals or farmers with travel deductions. Those who are self-employed can deduct travel expenses on Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business (Sole ...
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To accurately allocate expenses between business and personal activities for tax deductions, follow these steps: Track usage for a period of time. Determine the allocation by proportionally dividing the expenses based on the amount of business and personal use. Maintain proper records to support the allocation.
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PDF THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO DEDUCTING BUSINESS TRAVEL EXPENSES
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Everything You Need to Know About the Business Travel Tax Deduction

What counts as business travel?

What counts as "mostly business"?

Special rules for traveling abroad

What is an “ordinary and necessary” expense?

What is your tax home?

What's your main place of business?

How large is your tax home?

Rules for business travel

1. Your trip should take you away from your home base

2. You should be working regular hours

3. The trip should last less than a year

What about digital nomads?

Requirement #1: A tax home

Requirement #2: Some work-related reason for traveling

The travel expenses you can write off

🛫 All transportation

🥡 Meals while traveling

🌐 Wi-Fi and communications

👔 Dry cleaning

Travel expenses you can't deduct

The cost of bringing your child or spouse

Some hotel bill charges

Where to claim travel expenses when filing your taxes

What happens if your business deductions are disallowed?

When does the penalty come into play?

How much is the penalty?

Can You Deduct Your Vacation From Your Taxes? Experts Weigh In

Pass these four tests

Domestic travel versus travel abroad

Stick to the rules

What can you deduct?

Be strategic

How to Deduct Travel Expenses (with Examples)

The travel needs to qualify as a “business trip”

The rules are different when you travel outside the United States

List of travel expenses

Meals and entertainment during your stay

Meals and entertainment while you travel

Bringing friends & family on a business trip

Driving to your destination

Renting a place to stay

So your trip is technically a vacation? You can still claim any business-related expenses

If your business travel is with your own vehicle

The cost of breaking the rules

Tax penalties for disallowed business expense deductions

Form 8275 can help you avoid tax penalties

Where to claim travel expenses

How to deduct business expenses while on vacation

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Written by Alexandra Francel, EA, MST

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