Week 7 Day Trip Research Paper

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WEEK 7 TAX RESEARCH MEMORANDUM #1 FROM SUBJECT Deductions for the cost of meals for day trips Two of my clients, Tracey, a sales representative for a national pharmaceutical company and Mark, a ferryboat captain, have come to me with questions regarding allowable deductions of the cost of meals during their day trips. In both situations, their days last from 15 to 19 hours. FACTS Tracey visits customers in a company-owned vehicle. During these long day trips, she will pull over in locations such as rest areas and take a short nap in the backseat of the car. Mark captains a ferry that takes tourists on a roundtrip from Seattle to Victoria and back. During these trips, there is a 6 to 7 hour layover in Victoria. During…show more content…
The difficulty is deciphering what amount of time is considered being “away from home”. Those trips that require do not require overnight stays, just long hours, do not constitute “away from home” trips. In that instance, there would be no allowance for deductions of meal expenses. In three different rulings, each had trips involving anywhere from 15 to 19 hours in day. In each of these cases, the allowance for meal expense deductions was denied. In the case Frederick J. and June M. Barry v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue , the Barry’s were deducting for Frederick’s meal expenses. The ruling was that even those Frederick stopped to rest during his long trips, this did not constitute the “away from home” allowance and the expenses were not allowed. In the case of Marc G. Bissonnette, et ux. v. Commissioner, the court ruled that in the captain’s off season trips where there was a 6 to 7 hour layover, this was reasonable for him to incur expenses, since this layover was due to scheduling and not his own doing. For this the court ruled he was allowed to deduct for his

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