Can I deduct travel expenses for my spouse? | VK Consulting LLC
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IMAG0165Travel expenses are expenses that occurred while taxpayer was traveling away from their ” tax home”.  “Tax home” is the place where taxpayer conducts business on regularly basis regardless of where he/she lives, but for majority taxpayers “tax home” is place where they live. Deductible travel expenses might include cost of transportation, meals, tips, and  hotel cost.  If your trip was personal in nature  none of the expenses are deductible even if you engaged in some business activity during a trip.

Cost of bringing your spouse or  child is considered personal expense  and is not deductible, unless it is a partner or an employee.

If you travel for convention in North America and its related to your business any transportation and lodging expenses deductible at 100% and meals are at 50%.

If convention happens on a cruise ship, it must to be directly related to your business, and it has to be on board of US flag ship and all the ports of calls must be in the US.   $2000 worth of expenses for the cruise convention  can be deducted.

If you have to travel outside of the US, to maintain or acquire new business, travel expenses can be partially or fully deductible. As long as a trip lasts one week or less, taxpayer can deduct  100% of transportation cost.

For trips more than one week, there is  25% rule, which states that taxpayer can deduct 100% of transportation cost if he/she spent less than 25% of the total days vacationing.