The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Taxes => Topic started by: StashthatCash on August 07, 2017, 10:07:27 AM
-
I've seen a couple different answers out on the web to my question so thought I'd ask here.
If I have a travel blog, are you allowed to write off your travel expenses associated with that blog?
thank you
-
You may write off any expenses for your business that are ordinary and necessary.
If you start mixing family vacations with business trips, it becomes more complicated. That calculation will be between you and whomever signs your return.
-
This is going to be a "facts and circumstances" situation. There are examples where it has been disallowed, including through appeals: http://travelupdate.boardingarea.com/tax-deductions-blogging/
There are other cases where it's no doubt been allowed.
You're going to want to tread carefully and document well. Key questions for me would include "Is your blog profitable on a net basis?" "Is the business conducted in a diligent and profit-seeking manner?" "Are the expenses ordinary and necessary in the context of travel blogging?" (Note that meal and other entertainment expenses have specific limitations, regardless of ordinary and necessary.)
-
I actually think IRS publication is a pretty good resource for this:
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p463/index.html
This recent blog post of mine might also help... the logic here is that travel expenses for travel blog writer are possibly, basically, educational or research expenses:
http://evergreensmallbusiness.com/business-education-deductions/