Travel write-offs

Hello. I have some questions about travel and taxes. Can anyone
here tell me under what circumstances travel can be written off? I
would appreciate a link to this information if you have one. I am a
self-employed writer and have taken two weeklong trips for research
this year. It would be fantastic if I could deduct my expenses.
Final question: I assume I will need to itemize my deductions. I
have never had to do this on my taxes in the past. I prefer to file
online. Will I still be able to use an online filing service if I
have to itemize?

I hope someone here can point me in the right direction. Thanks in
advance.

Sincerely,
Korbin

Maybe an idea to tell us what country you live in as tax laws are different
all over the world.

"Korbin" <REMOVETHISkorbaconm> wrote in message
news:MPG.1a22aef69d0ccd42989701@netnews.att.net...
>
> Hello. I have some questions about travel and taxes. Can anyone
> here tell me under what circumstances travel can be written off? I
> would appreciate a link to this information if you have one. I am a
> self-employed writer and have taken two weeklong trips for research
> this year. It would be fantastic if I could deduct my expenses.
> Final question: I assume I will need to itemize my deductions. I
> have never had to do this on my taxes in the past. I prefer to file
> online. Will I still be able to use an online filing service if I
> have to itemize?
>
> I hope someone here can point me in the right direction. Thanks in
> advance.
>
> Sincerely,
> Korbin

1) The GENERAL rule is that you may deduct those ACTUAL and REASONABLE
expenditures that are REQUIRED to earn income.

2) This MAY include "research", but it probably WON'T cover a 2-week trip
to Paris just because you MIGHT write an article about it for an unspecified
publication at a futurer, unspecified date.

OTOH, if you have a REAL track record of published articles about travel
destinations in the past, it is much easier to convince the tax authorities
about the value of future trips.

To determine if you can "get away with it" this year, try this test:

Stand naked in front of your bathroom mirror, and read
Paragraphs 1 and 2 above out loud, with appropriate emphasison the
capiutalized words.

If you can manage to do so without blushing somewhere on your body, give it
a try!

"Korbin" <REMOVETHISkorbaconm> wrote in message
news:MPG.1a22aef69d0ccd42989701@netnews.att.net...
>
> Hello. I have some questions about travel and taxes. Can anyone
> here tell me under what circumstances travel can be written off? I
> would appreciate a link to this information if you have one. I am a
> self-employed writer and have taken two weeklong trips for research
> this year. It would be fantastic if I could deduct my expenses.
> Final question: I assume I will need to itemize my deductions. I
> have never had to do this on my taxes in the past. I prefer to file
> online. Will I still be able to use an online filing service if I
> have to itemize?
>
> I hope someone here can point me in the right direction. Thanks in
> advance.
>
> Sincerely,
> Korbin

In article <3fb964fc$0$1727$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.au> ,
gthart@sad.au says...
> Maybe an idea to tell us what country you live in as tax laws are different
> all over the world.

Ha, yes that's important, I'm American. Sorry. I've done a little
research and am pretty sure I can safely deduct. Now I just want to
make sure I won't have trouble filing online. I'd like to keep
filing via TaxBrain.com. Has anyone used them and itemized
deductions? Is this easy, or are there problems?

Sincerely,
Korbin


>
> "Korbin" <REMOVETHISkorbaconm> wrote in message
> news:MPG.1a22aef69d0ccd42989701@netnews.att.net...
> >
> > Hello. I have some questions about travel and taxes. Can anyone
> > here tell me under what circumstances travel can be written off? I
> > would appreciate a link to this information if you have one. I am a
> > self-employed writer and have taken two weeklong trips for research
> > this year. It would be fantastic if I could deduct my expenses.
> > Final question: I assume I will need to itemize my deductions. I
> > have never had to do this on my taxes in the past. I prefer to file
> > online. Will I still be able to use an online filing service if I
> > have to itemize?
> >
> > I hope someone here can point me in the right direction. Thanks in
> > advance.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Korbin
>
>
>