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?
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You have to look it up on the govt website. In my mind this is totally claimable, and not morally wrong at all, but only the tax code can tell you if the government thinks so too.
I remember hearing that a business can lose money for 3 years before the govt considers it fraudish.
Think this is the page you want
While what you’re saying is true, the CRA tends to apply stricter rules to expenses that might be considered personal. Although this Business Insider article is about the US, it aligns with what my accountant explained to me regarding travel expenses. TLDR: if the primary purpose of the trip is genuinely for business and the blog generates a substantial revenue, she should be in the clear.
So, the primary purpose of the trip is important. If it’s mainly for vacation and she’s doing a bit of work on the side, it might be difficult to deduct the majority of the expenses. However, if she plans out the trip mainly for content creation, visiting specific destinations for her blog, and working on it full-time during the trip, more of the expenses could be justifiably business-related.
If only part of the trip is for business, she might only be able to deduct a portion of the expenses. For example, if half the days were dedicated to business activities and half were personal vacation days, then potentially only half the lodging and meal expenses might be deductible.
But costs directly associated with her blog, such as costs to review a specific restaurant or fees for a specific excursion she’s reviewing, might be more clearly deductible. The same goes for any equipment or services she has to buy specifically for her blogging activities on the trip.
I don’t know if you can, but you shouldn’t, ethically speaking.
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)?
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.
