Tax Writeoff??

I'll be in Asia for primary purpose of vacation. I do plan to visit a couple of offices for information interviews. I am a US citizen, and am wondering if any of my expenses are eligible for a tax deduction? Expenses would be incurred abroad.

What are your thoughts?

It would be a lot easier to do if you own a company whose primary product is something that could benefit from the trip, like say a travel publication or something. If you don't have a company, I believe (a weak belief, mind you) that you would actually have to show some type of product that came out of the trip in order to justify writing it off. eg, a 2 month international trip resulting in some essays is gonna be pretty tough to justify to humorless IRS agents as a writeoff.

My thoughts are you should ask an accountant.

Seriously, I think it depends on a lot of things, including what you currently do for income. I think if you are SERIOUSLY interviewing overseas, with a realistic likelihood that it could lead to employment, then a (small) portion of your travel expenses could be deducted. But only those that apply directly to the "job search". (Airfare would be out, for example, unless it was a specific additional flight you had to take just to get to an interview.)

If you're just looking for a way to deduct your vacation, good luck. I've tried to float that one to my tax guy before....he never bites.

NTFT

lol! tax write off for a vacation? that can only be done as a business expense. furthermore, unless you own property you will more than likely take the standard deduction which is something like $4700 for a single person. so unless you can itemize deductions greater than the standard deduction, it's a moot point.

Actually, I know published writers who can legally write off travels as research expense. Ditto for professional actors. It depends on the situation, but remember you take a chance with things like that. Also, depending on what you were doing. If you were sitting on the beach for a month, I suppose it's hard to convince them that it's work-related, unless you're an oceanographer. But if you were traveling and researching the culture and learning the language, meeting people and asking about their experiences, and if you were networking to find possible employment, then you may have a chance. I suppose ask around. THere are no guarantees, but many careers DO require travel. THe business and finance world is international, as is IT and tech, and many others.

I'd ask NTFTuna. He's old, rich, and business savvy. And he's really hard to piss off.

But seriously, he's the man to ask.

quote:

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He's old, rich, and business savvy. And he's really hard to piss off.

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Nicest thing anyone has ever said about me.

You hitting on me? Welcome back.

Having just passed the Tax preparers course....I believe Meserod is correct, unless it's like $5000, forget it and then you can bet you'll get audited and have to justify it.

If you pull it off, let me know I'd love to do the same.

I've done this for years and years, but I'm a published travel writer. Even when it's a stretch, I know I'd survive an audit because I can show what came out of it (or at least should have come out of it.) I've got a friend who is a public speaker. He goes and meets with people at multinational companies who would possibly hire him someday. Even it it's a long shot, it's justified because of his business. The key is that it has to be tied into a real business that pays real money. In the event of an audit, you need to have a paper trail that proves this could result from your trip.

A note on the standard deduction: this doesn't apply if you have a separate business and this would be a business expense. Deducted expenses come right off the top--a reduction of your profits, to the point where you can have negative income that offsets your other income. Reason being that most any new business is going to lose money sometimes, especially when it is first getting off the ground.

This is intriguing. I am going to look into writing off a trip to India as a business expense. Hey, I'm a yoga teacher. If anyone can do it...