BP Con 2021: Making Business Travel Deductible

Are you attending BP CON this year? Read on to learn how to make your trip tax deductible!

BP Con is an annual real estate focused conference organized by BiggerPockets and is being held in New Orleans from October 3rd - October 5th**. You can learn more about the event and buy tickets on their website.

It will be a great event with the opportunity to learn from industry experts and to build our networks. There is also always the opportunity to have some fun in between all the business work.

The whole trip won’t be cheap so learning how to make it tax deductible is in your favor. Below are some expenses that attendees will incur:

• Attendance
  The cost of attendance is $750 for those who are BiggerPockets Pro or Premium members. Otherwise, the cost is $950.

• Travel (Flight, Train, Bus or Car mileage) 
  A round trip flight is around $400 for those coming from the Bay Area. A round trip flight is around $200 for those coming from NYC. 

• Meals (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, coffee breaks, happy hour)
  You normally don’t have the convenience of a kitchen when traveling and eating outside easily adds up. I think most taxpayers spend around $50 - $100 on meals per day when away from home

• Accommodation
  The event will be held at the Sheraton in NOLA. If you decide to stay here, current rates at the Sheraton are

  • 1 King Bed (1 - 3 Guests) - $254 per night

  • 2 Double Beds (1 - 3 Guests) - $269 per night

Total costs can quickly add up to upwards of $2,500 if attendees stay three days in New Orleans attending BP Con 2021. Thankfully, these costs can be deducted if accounted for properly.

Common deductible business travel expenses include:

• Cost of travel (by plane, train, bus, etc.)

• Shipping of luggage

• Transportation (to and from hotel, between clients, etc.)

  • Mileage on car for travel during your trip

• Accommodation

• Business meals and calls

  • Discussion during meal/call should be business focused

  • Limitations exist for deductions of up to 50% on unreimbursed cost of meals

• Laundry 

• Tips that you pay for the above services

Below are the three requirements to make your trip to BP Con 2021 tax deductible.

1. Ordinary and Necessary Expenses 

   Travel expenses for conventions are deductible if you can show that your attendance benefits your trade or business. This is easy to document for those who are already involved in real estate (Real Estate Investor, Agent, wholesaler, flipper, etc). There will be workshops at the conference to help benefit your trade or business.

   The issue that arises for some attendees to make the trip tax deductible is that they aren’t involved in a real estate business. The good news is that the costs can potentially be treated as ‘start-up costs’ when you do establish your business.

2. Away from Tax Home
   Your tax home is the entire city or general area where your main place of business or work is located. The IRS wants to make sure that you are traveling away from an area that you normally work at for travel expenses to be deductible.

   This is an easy requirement to pass for most taxpayers. This requirement will be difficult to meet for those whose tax home is New Orleans or those who have no tax home (ie digital nomads).

3. Primary purpose of travel (Business or personal?)
   What is your purpose for traveling to New Orleans?

   If the primary purpose of the trip is business, then 100% of the travel costs are deductible.
   If the primary purpose of the trip is personal/vacation, only the direct business costs of your travel are deductible.

Proper planning and tracking of your expenses will help classify your travel as a business trip resulting in the travel costs being 100% deductible.

Please feel free to reach out if you have questions regarding the deductibility of your travel costs by scheduling a call with me on Calendly.

**NOLA and its surrounding areas have been severely impacted by Hurricane Ida; BP Con events are subject to change