Can travel expenses be tax deductible?

[Scott K.]

Hi there, when my family and I travel, we simultaneously use that trip to look at potential investment properties. I was wondering, are any of those travel expenses tax deductible?

[Kory Reynolds]

Possibly.  Travel expenses can be very tricky - there are a bunch of bifurcations based on if the trip is primarily for personal, primarily for business, or somewhere in-between - including the allocation of airfare and other costs.  If the trip is mostly personal, then only the expenses directly related to looking at potential investment properties would actually be deductible, which is likely rather minimal - maybe some gas or Uber costs to get there?

That said, there would be arguably no business purpose to bringing your family along with you, so even if you are spending the entire time searching for real estate. If you brought your spouse and 2 kids with you, and you could argue all of your argue of your time on the trip was looking at real estate, and your personal business and activity circumstance defends being able to immediately deduct it and not treat it as a start up cost... likely 75% of much of the travel costs (airfare, food, etc) would be non-deductible.  Bringing your family along also puts a serious damper on that the primary purpose of the trip was actually for business - not impossible, but in my eyes it definitely taints it in a way that you really want to ensure everything is buttoned down on the business purpose and the actual business activity that occurred.