What Is Deductible for Business Travel?

By Anna Duncan

Business travel is a common occurrence for many businesses that need employees to travel for meetings, conferences and other activities. But what exactly is deductible for business travel? This question is important for businesses to understand in order to maximize their tax deductions and ensure they are properly following all applicable tax laws.

Travel Expenses

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows businesses to deduct the reasonable expenses of traveling for business purposes. These include the cost of airfare, hotel accommodations, meals and rental cars.

The IRS also allows businesses to deduct other fees associated with travel such as baggage fees, conference registration fees, tips and transportation costs within the destination city. Generally speaking, any costs that are directly related to the business trip are deductible.

Meals

Businesses can also deduct meal expenses while traveling. However, these deductions must be reasonable based on location and must be documented in order to be valid. Additionally, any meals that involve entertaining clients or potential customers can also be deducted.

Documentation

In order to claim a deduction for business travel expenses, it is important that businesses keep accurate documentation of their expenses. This includes itemized receipts from all purchases made during the trip as well as records of any mileage logged while traveling by car.

Keeping accurate records will help ensure that a business does not over-deduct or miss out on any deductions they are entitled to.

Conclusion:
What Is Deductible for Business Travel? Businesses can generally deduct reasonable expenses associated with business trips including airfare, hotel accommodations, meals and rental cars. Meals should be reasonable based on location and must be documented in order to be valid deductions. It is also important that businesses keep accurate documentation of their travel expenses in order to claim deductions properly when filing taxes.