Taxes are part of travel, but at least many business trip expenses are deductible
Sunday, September 25, 2016
I'm a bit slow today. I got up at O'dark-thirty to catch a flight home from San Diego, California, where I had spent four fantastic days at FinCon, an annual conference of fellow financial bloggers and other money and media folks.
It's a great opportunity to learn best practices, pick up tips (for stories, blog posts and growing your business), meet people you've only known heretofore online, make new friends and reconnect with old ones.
And, almost best of all, the business travel is tax deductible.
Taxes on your travel: That's some consolation when you look at all the business trip receipts you've collected and notice all the on-the-road taxes you paid.
There are, of course, the sales taxes on the newspapers you picked up at the airport to stay on top of current affairs that affect your business.
And on the ear buds you bought at the hotel gift shop when yours unexpected quit working right before that conference call you had to make.
And, of course, on all those restaurant meals you chowed down on as you and your colleagues talked shop.
Taxes on a place to sleep: Then there are the room charges. Most major travel destinations impose at least one lodging tax. San Diego has a couple.
There's the city's Transit Occupancy Tax, or TOT, which is 10.5 percent of a room's rental rate.
Lodging establishments also collect the Tourism Marketing District, or TMD, tax. The timing of FinCon meant that all of us staying at the hotel hosting the financial conference had another 2 percent onto our room's rate. That's along with the Golden State's collection of a 1.95 percent California Tourism Assessment.
And on how you got there: Don't overlook the myriad taxes that apply to airline travel.
Or on rental cars if your destination hotel isn't like the one on the San Diego Bay where I stayed and doesn't provide a courtesy shuttle to and from the airport.
Yes, all the taxes are annoying, even for someone whose living depends on taxes. But all my taxable travel costs last week were money well spent.
And in a few months, they'll be welcome tax deductions.
Working while on the road: I was traveling last week (and racking up tax deductible business expenses), but thanks to today's digital world, I was still working. That meant I was able to post a couple of items last week at my other tax blog.
Cutting to the chase, the Bankrate Taxes Blog posts were how Trump's tax deduction change upsets charities and the alert that Employers face[d] deadline to claim tax credit for new hires.
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