Continuing Education expense deduction

A receipt from you friend would be useful, perhaps required, to substantiate a deduction.

For future reference, most hotels will provide receipts with 50:50 splits of the amount billed when two business travellers are sharing a room.

Yes, but make sure you run it by your friend. If he/she deducts the full amount and you deduct half, that wouldn't be good :).

I probably should have clarified. I'm not asking if the hotel expense qualifies as a deduction. Rather, I'm asking, if I were audited by the IRS, would a hotel receipt in my FRIEND'S name, along with a copy of the cleared check for half the amount I wrote to him be adequate proof?

Thanks again.

Maybe, maybe not. If it is too late to get a split receipt from the hotel then that will be the best you can do.

A xerox copy of your friend's copy of the hotel receipt would also be useful even if only his name is on it, particularly combined with a hand written receipt for 1/2 signed by him.

Again, I should have been more specific. It's not quiet a "hotel" receipt. We booked the hotel by bidding on priceline (which, by the way, does not allow 50/50 split receipts). So I basically have a printout of the Priceline receipt in his name, and a copy of the cleared check I wrote to my friend for exactly half that amount.

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Just make sure you have the receipt for the continuing education to show you were out of town and a copy of the hotel receipt which should show the same town.