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We are in the height of trade show season and it is important to remember to save your receipts. From an article on Tax Advantages for 2011 and 2012 Trade-show exhibits and attendance, plus travel, meals, admission fees and costs of booths or exhibitions are listed as deductions.
Business Week also mentions tradeshow extrance fees and more in their article listing 25 unsung tax deductions.
Finally, an article written by Phillip Perry gives great detail about what can and can't be deducted from your tradeshow event including the costs of taking a significant other with you. Here is what he has to say about documentation:
Knowing which travel expenses are deductible is a great help when it comes to income tax time. Your job's not done, though, when you stuff a handful of hotel and car rental receipts into a storage envelope. You must also properly document your expenses.
"The IRS typically requires contemporaneous records for expenses related to travel, meals and entertainment," says Andrew Benedict, tax manager at RGA Advisors, New York City.
"For each day's business expense you need to record the business purpose, the time, and the place in some kind of log. Such notation should be made at or close to the time you actually incurred the expense."
Too often documentation is inadequate or misplaced, says Benedict. In such cases, the business owner is faced with a credibility problem.
"The biggest mistake business owners make is not making an adequate record the same week the expenses were incurred, and then trying to reconstruct the events a year later."
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