Back in the days of "travel as education" I used to advise
preplanning. That is, letters to places, people,
institutions to establish that the trip was for business
purposes. And keep copies!!!!

A letter to a present client mentioning potential new
clients? Very good planning.

You are showing INTENT.
As for any element of enjoyment (which the occasional
auditor still brings up) - nothing al all wrong with
enjoying your job. After all, I sit through hours of tax
conferences - and enjoy them. Wierd.

Nan, EA in LA
Entrenched belief is never altered by the facts.....

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cgrantNoSpam[at]alum.mit.edu says...

- quote -

She should keep a calendar/schedule of what she did while
she was there. That said, there's no telling what an IRS
auditor would initially do. After all, taxes and logic
rarely intersect.

Gary
--
You can probably X figure out X which letters to X delete to
derive my email address X.

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- quote -

If you travel outside the United States and you spend the
entire time on business activities, you can deduct all of
your travel expenses.

SEE:
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p463/ch01.html#d0e1289

"Jack" - John H. Fisher - TaxService[at]aol.com
Philadelphia, Pa - Atlantic City, NJ - West Wildwood, NJ
My Newsgroups & Boards at: http://members.aol.com/TaxService/index.html

Where Ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise!=

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I have a new client who is a professional translator
specializing in technical and patent translations. Every
few years, she goes abroad to the countries where her
clients are located, to visit existing clients, visit
potential new clients, and to make sure her language skills
are still top- notch. She also does on-site research in
technical libraries. She would not make the trip if it were
not for her business, nor does she use significant time to
play tourist.

My question is how to present these trips as a proper
business expense they are. I've never handled quite this
situation and want to be warned of any "gotcha's" that
people have run into before.

Thanks!
Catherine

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