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Posted by Bill Brown on April 16, 2007, 4:44 pm
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> Can Travel Expenses be deducted when the trip was for work
> that involves personal time?
>
> I am employed by a large church as a religious coordinator.
> A couples group from church was going to Italy on a retreat.
> One month before they were to leave, the pastor informed me
> about the retreat that I did not know about, and told me
> that he would like for me to go along since this was a
> large group. The priest was the director for the retreat.
>
> I said could go, but upon seeing the price told him I could
> not and after talking to my husband (who would not be going).
> The priests at the church talked about and decided that they
> could pay for 1/3 from a fund they had it I paid the
> remainder.
>
> This was a 21 day trip, On my time sheet some of the time
> was recorded as vacation and the remainder as working in
> Italy.
>
> The stipulation in the trip was that I would serve as the
> priest's assistant if situations took place since I am a
> coordinator at the parish.
>
> Can any of my expenses be taken on my tax return ?
You arguably had a deduction for all your unreimbursed costs
as out-of- pocket employee business expenses. From your
facts you would not have been in Italy except for your job
requirements. It would help if you spent at least 4 hours
on job related duties on each of 11 different days (where
travel days to and from Europe count as 2 of those 11 days).
More aggressively you have, in my opinion, a good case for
deducting your unreimbursed church related costs as
charitable contributions.
I realize charitable organizations and churchs ofter have
severe budget constraints, but both making you pay for a
significant fraction of the costs yourself AND having you
use vacation days on this trip seems egregious.
Moderator:
If you have not filed or filed an extension, file an
extension NOW and discuss this with a local tax pro.
I am in complete agreement with every part of the above
response.
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