My wife is working on getting her travel blog off the ground and just asked me about claiming business expenses come tax time. Let’s say we go for a week long trip to Spain, she makes some social media posts on her work accounts and creates some blog posts, maybe some shouting out or showcasing a restaurant/experience/service we used while on our trip. While not a traditional “business” trip, she is taking this trip with the intention of making some money back off of it through her content, so is there any portion of the travel expenses that she can claim as business expenses?
I don’t know if you can, but you shouldn’t, ethically speaking.
For anyone looking for a more tangible reason not expense suspect things, it’s because it’s suspicious and increases the odds of you getting audited. Which in turn can cost a fair bit of time and money regardless of the results of the audit.
Why is this ethically wrong. They are working on this vacation. Why should they have to pay taxes on something that’s tax deductible (as long as it is)?