The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: davef on January 27, 2015, 10:16:15 AM
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Last year I brought my wife along on a business trip to Australia. I have my own business as a speaker/ trainer where I am the only employee.
She helped make the manuals, drove, ironed my clothes, etc. Can I write off her airfare?
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Unless you want to set her up as an employee, it would be difficult to prove to the IRS that this is a true business expense if you were to be audited. Business expenses need to be necessary and ordinary. It would not be ordinary for any company I know to pay for your wife to fly to Australia in order to iron your clothes.
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I'm not sure about the necessary part.
I know plenty of business that have perks, that are hardly necessary.
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As you've presented it, your wife's airfare is not an allowable expense of your business.
As a business owner, you are not just an employee & you are likely to be audited at some point. If you have detailed legitimate records, the IRS will likely stay on point, & the audit becomes a formality. Give them reason to start disallowing your "expenses" & their audit can easily turn into a fishing trip, plus you will own interest & penalty on the disallowed items. Not worth it, IMO.
How your business is filing can determine your chances of an audit; Schedule C expenses are audited much more than a Subchapter S return.
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This totally depends on the setup of the company and how you file your taxes. If this is a jointly owned sole proprietorship... then maybe you can argue that both owners were needed to travel to the event. Maybe. With really good documentation.
If you are actually an employee of this company, and she is not, then I can't see how you could justify it.
I'm not an accountant, I don't play one on TV, and I didn't stay at a holiday inn express last night.