Work-relate expense deduction?

Are work related expenses only deductible if such expenses are mandatory for my employment? For example, if I am a dentist associating at a practice, I assume I can deduct my expense for license renewal, malpractice insurance, CPR training, etc.. because without these I cannot practice dentistry. But how about traveling to continuing education courses, or the annual ADA meeting? I am certainly not being forced to go to such meetings by my employer, nor do I need to go to them to legally practice dentistry, so would they not be deductible?

Reply to
logan1453
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Education to maintain or improve your skills can be deducted, if education was the purpose of your trips.

For example, taking a two-day seminar in Las Vegas and staying there for five days would, IMHO, throw out the trip as deductable education.

Reply to
Arthur Kamlet

Would 2/5 of the trip be deductible in your example?

Reply to
removeps-groups

wrote

Seminar costs and at least two days of hotel & meals, yes, but if you shift the primary purpose of the trip to personal, then travel costs, no.

Reply to
paulthomascpa

As noted in your other question, expenses leading to the minimum qualifications for a job are not deductible.

Once you have an established business, then license renewals, insurance, etc., are deductible.

Reply to
D. Stussy

what if you find a package deal, where 5 days is cheaper (or no more expensive) than the two days? I used to travel back east on the right days and get such a savings on airline tickets that it paid for the extra lodging.

Reply to
Reggie

True, they're not deductible on Schedule A itemized deductions (subject to the 2% of AGI rule and AMT), or Schedule C. But they are deductible for the tuition and fees deduction, or education/tuition credits.

A really strange rule indeed!

Reply to
removeps-groups

permitted (and subtracted from the total of the trip) if they are less than

25% of the trip. That includes 25% of the TIME of the trip, so 1 day in 4 isn't going to kill your business trip, but 5 out of 7 (or 3 of 5, depending on how one interprets the question) certainly will.
Reply to
D. Stussy

Well, I think that some of this will come down to the principle of asking whether there is a legitimate business purpose in spending the extra days. One could argue that reducing the overall cost of the trip would be a legitimate business purpose.

In fact, especially back in the days of the Saturday night stay, even the federal government finally (after many years of study and argument) relented and allowed the extra lodging costs to be charged to contracts if the net result was to lower the total cost of the trip. [I'm sure the practitioners on this board can appreciate how easy it is to get the federal government to change ANY rule, even when it is the logical thing to do...]

Reply to
Tom Russ

Isn't the 25% rule only for foreign travel? For domestic travel they only use adjectives. From publication 463:

Travel in the United States

The following discussion applies to travel in the United States. For this purpose, the United States includes the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The treatment of your travel expenses depends on how much of your trip was business related and on how much of your trip occurred within the United States. See Part of Trip Outside the United States , later. Trip Primarily for Business

You can deduct all of your travel expenses if your trip was entirely business related. If your trip was primarily for business and, while at your business destination, you extended your stay for a vacation, made a personal side trip, or had other personal activities, you can deduct your business-related travel expenses. These expenses include the travel costs of getting to and from your business destination and any business-related expenses at your business destination.

Exception 3 - Less than 25% of time on personal activities. Your trip is considered entirely for business if:

  • You were outside the United States for more than a week, and * You spent less than 25% of the total time you were outside the United States on nonbusiness activities.

For this purpose, count both the day your trip began and the day it ended.

Reply to
removeps-groups

It's statutorily for foreign travel, but why do you find it unreasonable to consider it as a guideline for domestic travel also?

Reply to
D. Stussy

274(c)(2)(B) applies this 25% rule to foreign travel exceeding a week.

Is there also a section applying it to domestic travel?

Steve

Reply to
Steve Pope

If you do the latter, the transportation and lodging is not deductible though, right? Just the tuition to attend any CE courses is, right? And would one claim this on the Lifetime Learning credit?

Reply to
logan1453

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