Travel primarily for business

[Gretel]

I tried to find a previous post on this issue but couldn't.

What is the definition of "primarily"?

Does it just go by time spend away from home, f.e. 5 days away - 1st and last day travel, 2nd day business, 3rd and 4th day personal - meaning 3 days would have been spend on business anyway (travel fully deductible)

or does it go by days at destination meaning 1 day business, 2 days personal, so no deduction for trip to destination?

OR

Does the intent play any role here if things happen beyond the control of the taxpayer and the ratio shifts to the unfavorable mainly personal days?

Like to register for a seminar and the organizer messes up, you planned to be there for two days but can now only attend one day since the other class is full and had planned to spend one day for personal reasons. Since you had to book the flight in advance there was nothing you could do after the fact.

By the way, what if one day is personal and one day is business?

[solomon]

From Pub 463

You work in Atlanta and take a business trip to New Orleans. On your way home, you stop in Mobile to visit your parents. You spend $1,070 for the 9 days you are away from home for travel, meals, lodging, and other travel expenses. If you had not stopped in Mobile, you would have been gone only 6 days, and your total cost would have been $920. You can deduct $920 for your trip, including the cost of round-trip transportation to and from New Orleans. The deduction for your meals is subject to the 50% limit on meals mentioned earlier.

[Gretel]

Thanks, I read that one just before I posted. It did not clarify my questions.

[Gene V]

The way I read it, if your personal days are less then 25%, then your transportation is 100% deductible. Otherwise, you would have to allocate the transportation.

Pub. 463, travel outside the US, gives few examples—I think this would also
apply to travel within the US.

[BOB W]

My understanding for deductability of business travel in the USA was determined by the number of days away (not including travel days) that was for business. And that more than half of those days needed to be for business in order to get 100% of the travel expenses deducted in full. Any personal days would not be deductable but all business days would be deductible in addition to travel to and from if more than half of the days were for business.

A business day is a minimum of 6 hours.

Away from USA seems to be handled differently.

[Gene V]

Away from USA seems to be handled differently.

Your right Bob, just haven’t read all the detail in the Pub. I think Pub. 463 explains the travel expense quite adequate

[BOB W]

Travel inside the US

I just read pub 463??? It does not define how to determine the primary purpose for a business/personal trip. This was what I was using when I talked about "The more than 50%" test. For years this was the test to determine the purpose of a trip. Why it is not specifically spelled out that way is making this issue confusing. Although Pub 463 in their example lends it to my conclusion (more the 50%) but only talks about the primary purpose of the trip before the trip is taken.......Is this to say IRS HAS to accept T/P's intent if audited>>>>I think not.............................An Auditor will look at time spent on each activity.

[Gretel]

So, what you say implies that in my scenario if other people mess up and it is totally beyond your control that you only have one day spent for business instead of two days you are stuck with the consequences? I would fight for this.

I mean it is one thing to arbitrarily change your mind another thing is to be subject to third parties mistakes or f.e. major delays of your flight so you will not be able to reach home that same day and fly a day later. Life happens and not all is just the taxpayer trying to get away.

[BOB W]

So, what you say implies that in my scenario if other people mess up and it is totally beyond your control that you only have one day spent for business instead of two days you are stuck with the consequences? I would fight for this.

I mean it is one thing to arbitrarily change your mind another thing is to be subject to third parties mistakes or f.e. major delays of your flight so you will not be able to reach home that same day and fly a day later. Life happens and not all is just the taxpayer trying to get away.

In my reading there was 3rd party changes that would not be held against any calculations.