Mixing business with pleasure

[BourbonTrailBazaar]

I’m heading to Florida at the end of June. I will be driving some friends and I and am curious about how much I can deduct mileage wise. It will probably be around 1000 miles round trip and I plan to spend some time sourcing while I am there. On top of that, are there other expenses I can deduct? Food, housing, etc?

Joshua

[So Cal Joe]

If it’s truly a business trip, you can deduct all the miles, as well as the lodging and meals.

The question you have to ask yourself is “is this really a business trip and will it stand up to an audit?”

[BourbonTrailBazaar]

Well, it’s not a business trip per se. It’s a vacation but I will be sourcing stuff to sell as well. That is why I was asking about partial deductions.

[Jay]

I don’t know a good answer. But as SoCal Joe said, it’s really what you think you can defend in an IRS audit. I think you could deduct meals and travel around the scavenging in that town, but not the entire trip since the main reason is not business.

This short post has a good summary: http://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/taxes/what-you-can-and-cant-write-off-with-business-travel/

“Unreasonable Expenses
Sure, this category is a bit nebulous, but there’s no telling what the IRS will flag. The rule of thumb is: if you feel an expense is not necessary for you to conduct business, don’t claim it. Being audited is no fun, and it’s not worth getting caught to try to reduce your taxable income with questionable expenses.”

[Retro Treasures WV]

I make regular trips to Columus which is just under 3 hours away. While we are there we stay in a hotel and go to a science museum, the zoo, and shop (trader joes rules). We stay 1-2 nights and book cheap on hotwire.

I bring a soft roof cargo bag and I thrift every day we are there on the weekend. I can comfortably say that my main purpose is to buy inventory on the trip. I only need to thrift about an hour or two a day and I can fill up the roof bag and extra space in the van as well.

I deduct all of my mileage for the entire trip. I do not deduct my meals. If it was just me on the trip I would, but since I have my family with me it just gets complicated. Eventually I will start deducting meals too as I get more comfortable understanding tax laws.

[Retro Treasures WV]

For a true family vacation I prefer to completely put ebay on hold. No thrifting! It is vacation after all. You’re supposed to be relaxing and refreshing your body and mind.

[skydog]

I have been self employed for over 35 years (selling on ebay since 2008). My CPA told me years ago that the IRS considers a “business day” as four hours plus on business. That allows you to deduct the cost of ‘business” expenses. Hotel, meals (50%), mileage, etc. How you spend the rest of the day is your prerogative. If you have business on Friday and again on Monday, the cost of the weekend expenses are included. Meals are NOT included on business trips unless you spend the night. You can google this stuff to see if it is still accurate.

As for mileage-use the same mileage you use at home-just spend the 4+ hours a day. You don’t have to shop 4 hours. You might be on the computer checking on your store, listing, etc.

What you don’t want to do is decide to take a personal vacation, visit a couple of thrifts then write it all off. A little obvious….

3 years ago, my wife and I hopped on a plane and flew to LA for one day. We wanted to check out the thrifts near Hollywood. We hit about a dozen stores and caught the red eye back home with a couple of bags of treasure. Obviously, that was a business trip. If we had surfed for 8 hours while there, most likely not.

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