Question

International Travel Expenses - Trip Primarily for Personal Reasons with a Side Trip for Rental Property Inspection

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
October 14, 2019
2 replies
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I hope there might be some international tax experts out there. I've been spending time reading IRS Pub. 463, but still have questions.

I traveled overseas to visit my family. I also have a rental property in a different city, in the same country. I took 1 day to inspect this property during a 2.5 week visit to this country. Per Pub. 463, I would say the trip is "primary for personal reasons".

However, I'm still wondering if I can deduct the travel expenses that were solely incurred to inspect my rental property in a different city. For example:

Round trip airfare to foreign country is $2,000 (not deductible for a trip, primary for personal reasons)
Round trip airfare from city of my parent's residence to city of my rental property is $200. Additionally, rental car, parking and fuel for rental car were $100. Total expense for rental property inspection was $300 (plus per meal perdiem).

Can I deduct the $300 as a travel expense to inspect my rental property?

(Also posted at Investors & landlords)

Z

ZTaxPro

Employee

The pub 463 section is to allocate expenses that are for the whole trip (flight, hotel, etc.). Since you can identify expenses related to 100% business you should be able to deduct those expenses.

Carl11_2

Employee

Since you can identify expenses related to 100% business you should be able to deduct those expenses.

Here's why I disagree. @Phil11_2 specifically states:

Trip Primarily for Personal Reasons

Per IRS Publication 527 at https://www.irs.gov/publications/p527#en_US_2018_publink1000218997

Travel expenses.

You can deduct the ordinary and necessary expenses of traveling away from home if the primary purpose of the trip is to collect rental income or to manage, conserve, or maintain your rental property.

So based on that, since Phil makes it clear with no room for other interpretation, the primary purpose of the trip was "not" for the rental property, not a penny is deductible as a rental expense.