Can entertainment and meals be deductible in full?

Except the auditor won't have a smile on his face.

I've seen this nearly exact same scenario go south on someone.

Booking gets done over the phone and through e-mail these days. Same for promoting.

The necessity of visiting a venue to evaluate the possibility that your band might want to play there is dubious.

In the end, everything is a matter of facts amd circumstances. Last week while judging beer, I was accused of being the "Russian Judge" meaning I scored lower than than the other judges, However, in this case of the band manager, I seem to br scoring highesr.

If this is a situation where the bands get booked 1 to 4 times in a year. Forget it. But if he is booking them

26 or more times, he has an established business and is, in my rarely humble opinion, entitled to such deductions.

OTOH as he establishes his business, he will need to create positive relationships with the venue operators who should be getting him in for free!

When I taught Auditing at the University, I referred to it as educating bastards,

Dick - I is an Auditor (CPA, CIA, CISA)

Did they have proper documentation? Were there entertinament/scouting expenses large relative to the rest of their expenses? If they had proper documentation (which shoud includes receipts and preferrably a log of their analysis) and scouting expenses were not large relative to all expenses (5% might be a reasonable ratio), then it seems fair enough.

You still have to see the place in person to be sure. Sometimes you could go to the place when there is no concert in place, probably for free just to check out the size and so on. Documentation of this would be good to have too.

wrote

Clearly going there during the day, meeting with the management and staff, sound and lighting people, etc is common enough practice in the music and entertainment industry. Attending a show there is not.

Look, the folks at the venue will want you to have a huge show, and will do whatever to make it so. They'll direct you to the radio, press, etc to get your word out to the public that frequent their venue.

I don't know the actual practices. I can see lots of times when it's cheaper to attend a show (e.g. I want to see how fancy they can get with the existing lighting system; they'll charge me a lot to have their lighting engineer come in specially to show me, or I can buy a ticket to a show where they say they'll be doing lots of lighting effects.)

It's not clear they know the optimal ways to advertise (certainly they have little incentive to save you money; they'd rather have you spend another $1,000 to get $500 more tickets sold).

Seth

"Seth" wrote

You can bet your sweet bippies the IRS will know more than you then.

There exists a Market Segment Specialization Program Audit Technique Guide for musicians, which spells out in detail for the auditor what the practices are in the industry at various levels and for various types of people in the music business (artists, managers, producers, promoters, lables, etc and so on).

Are you just not aware of load-in and sound check? If it's absolutely necessary for you to see what it looks like and hear what it sounds like, then contact the manager of the venue and get in the door early. Talk business, get the tour, listen and look, take notes.

I just don't see it at all. If you have a pending show there, or you are even considering a show there, the venue managemenet would be letting you in for free - if you're on the up and up. I just don't see the necessity to atttend a show to obtain what can be had for the cost of a phone call, or an e-mail which is even less these days. Then again, there's always load in and sound check.

The incentive for the venue to help you is their reputation for quality shows, especially on nights that draw the big numbers. The club/bar venues generally makes the bulk of their profits for the night on beverage sales. So they are going to work with you to make sure you have the biggest draw your band can pull, this regardless of what night it is. That's why booking is a two way street. You might be dying to play there, but they don't want you.....or they may be dying to have you play there, but you don't want to.

There are trade publications that let the venues know what your draw was at past shows, as well as the financial payout arrangements. The venues publish what their house sound and lighting systems are as well as their back-line (if any).

The venue management knows the area. They know what types of people attend their venue. They know what avenue your music needs to market through. They are the professionals in their market. They have all the contacts. And they'll direct you to people and places within your budget.

If your band only does covers, trick lighting and a finely tuned sound system in a state of the art acoustical venue can't change the fact that no one wants to hear it.

Athens is a music town. I have clients up and down the music business chain, from solo performers, bands, managers, booking agents, writers, promoters, and record lables, to club/venues and music festivals, even a lutherie or two. I don't know anyone, from the local unknown indie band to the folks who won a Grammy not all that long ago, that does what you feel like should be an allowed deduction as an ordinary and necessary business expense.

But I can tell you it's been tried before, and shot down in a hail of audit bullets.