How to Deduct this business trip to escape the snow!

[ejmyrow]

Dear Awesome Mustachians,
My husband and I heard about the "historic snow storm" that was coming to Denver. We didn't want to lose power as that would stop our business activities (we are self employed, have a LLC, need phone and internet) - and we wanted to make sure our baby stayed warm! We are both on the LLC as joint owners. First night we went to Pueblo. The hotel was super sketch so we went to Walsenburg the second two nights. Then we went to Santa Fe bc we were getting close to it! My husband has been making phone calls half the day and we've enjoyed Santa Fe in the afternoons. I also have been working on finishing our taxes and other business research. We talk about the business so much of the day. I read that we can't call it a retreat if it's just husband and wife? But we are both owners... Can we write off travel, lodging, food as a business expense? Can you point us to any easy to use resources on this?
Many thanks!
E+E

[yachi]

This sounds sketchy to me, more like you were tired of the cold/snow.  What were your plans for protection your home - keeping pipes from freezing, keeping snow away from HVAC exhaust ducts, etc.?  If you had something like crazy amounts of data on a cell phone from working because your regular internet connection went out I could see that being a business expense.

[secondcor521]

To be deductible, a business expense 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.  An expense does not have to be indispensable to be considered necessary.

The best place to look for answers is the instructions for Schedule C lines 24a and 24b (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sc.pdf page 9).  Since that is an expense area where abuse is common (not necessarily by you, but by taxpayers as a whole), I think the IRS does tend to audit and look at those expenses more carefully than many others.

[charis]

If this were a thing, couldn't any business owner (or whoever qualifies for such things) write off any vacation during which they continued to conduct and/or talk about business.  I live in an area that gets large snow storms every winter and losing power a couple times a year is not uncommon for many folks around here. 

[Sibley]

I'm not aware of any legit reason you could deduct your trip as a business expense. Sorry. But hopefully you enjoyed the change in scenery.

[cool7hand]

Many business owners write off a lot worse than this. But you need to understand that you are taking on significant risk.

[norajean]

If you determined traveling was necessary to conduct your business you should be able to deduct all those costs. Just document everything and follow the rules.