Can I deduct personal travel expenses?

This answer was provided by Mark Misselbeck, CPA, from Levine, Katz, Nannis & Solomon PC in Needham.

Q: If a trip is personal, can we deduct airfare/meal on our return? --Ron, Cambridge

A: Since you have defined your trip as entirely personal and there is an absolute bar to personal deductions in the tax law, no deduction would be allowed for the trip, any meals on the trip, trip related expenses or meals on return from the trip.

If the trip was primarily for business, you should be able to deduct the airfare and a limited portion of hotel, meal and miscellaneous expenses for yourself, with a restriction on meal and entertainment expenses of only 50% of the total. Your spouse, assuming that they accompanied you on the trip, would need their own business reason for making the trip, if any of their expenses were to be deductible, with the exception that only the added cost of a second occupant in the hotel room would be non-deductible for the period that a business deduction would be permitted. You should look at the list of IRS free Publications - either on their web site or in their Publications 17 or 334 - for a specific publication dealing with business travel, meal and entertainment deductions (call 800-829-3676 for a free copy or download it from www.irs.gov).

Recommended reading by the Mass. Society of CPAs: Combining business and vacation travel