Roadjunky Travel Forums

I guess this is not really feedback, but it is a question directed to all those who own and work for road junky.

So, you all travel ,, here there and everywhere,,, and you write articles for a travel website (which in turn makes your income).

So what I'm wondering is do you write off all your travels on taxes as business expenses? If so, do you write everything from planes to food to beer,, or just specific things.

I can see how a hired author for Newsweek can write off everything it costs them when sent to Rio to cover topic "X". Their boss has sent them on a work related destination for a specific purpose. That will pass any IRS guy.

But my impression of Road Junky is that the owners/writers simply travel because they want to and the byproduct is articles (which then produce income via the website traffic). Is this seen differently by the IRS? Can you claim that any travel is for the purpose of "finding" material which in turn is your business and livelihood?

I'm really interested to know how far the writeoffs can go with a business model like this. I recently started a side business (travel guide) which is travel related. Some things are obvious, but other I don't know.
- can any trip be considered "research" for future customer excursions?
- can traveling to "X" and taking language lessons be considered "education" to improve future services?

These are the questions that haunt me around tax time. Would love to know how Road Junky deals with it.

thanks,

we'd tell you but we're afraid you work for the IRS...

i didn't ask for advice on cheating the IRS. I pay up each year like a sucker because the IRS scares me,,,,,, just wanted to know what you can and cannot write off. It's not a trick question.

no worries, just joking about the IRS. The answer is as boring as taxes often are: we don't generally write off flights, except when we fly in contributors to our annual Road Junky gatherings which are usually held wherever Tom is that month.

Hmmmmmm,, so my idea of writing off all travel as experience/research for my guide business is probably not going to fly,,,,
It's so hard to make a buck from traveling,, I was hoping to at least save a few on taxes instead.

As long as I'm on the topic and you guys seem to know just enough to cause harm on any given topic...

If I'm making cash outside the country while traveling (which I can do with my web business),, any advice on how one finds a safe oversea bank that isn't treaty-tied with the U.S. ?
If not,, maybe that would be a good topic for one of your articles, huh?

um ,yeah, goldpan - if you figure out that one, please submit an article about where to stash the money. we usually keep it in cash under a loose floor board in whatever crappy hotel we're staying in.

I've actually done quite a bit of research on "offshore" banking (ie: swiss, panama, caymans, etc)... but I've not been able to get reliable information about who is under the the U.S. thumb and who isn't ... in other words who will open up your account to the IRS if asked...(while still balancing a stable government,,, don't want to lose your money because of a change of power) The only for sure one is certain types of swiss accounts. But getting a swiss account is not as easy as one might hope,, and it costs a good bit of cash (both in mandatory minimum balances and opening fees and in many cases either a personal appearance or a paid "sponsor").

If I come up with more definitive information I will certainly share it with the road junkys.