Here is a scenario that seems rather straight-forward but has been causing a lot of debate and dissension amongst 3 family members. I’m curious to see what others might conclude.
Three siblings operate a farm LLC in Nebraska. Ann (fake names) is the manager of the LLC, which is based in Kearney Nebraska, but all the siblings live in Kansas. Beth (sibling 2) decided to go on a family trip to Spring Hill, KS to Lincoln, NE. Two weeks later, Ann arranged for an LLC meeting and dinner event for the farmers, to be held in Kearney, Nebraska and Beth decided to attend it as well. This meant that Beth drove from her home in Spring Hill, KS (Point A) to Lincoln, NE (Point B), where her original family trip had been planned, and then drove to Kearney, NE (Point C) for the LLC meeting and dinner. The next day, Beth return to Lincoln, NE (Point B) and eventually returned home to Spring Hill, KS (Point A).
Here is the situation. Beth contacted Ann and requested that she been compensated for her mileage from Point A to B to C to B and back home to A. In other words, compensation for her entire trip. Ann’s position is that she should only be compensated from Point B to Point C then back to Point B since that was the only part of the trip that was business related. Here is where we are getting differing opinions.
CPA #1 says that only Point B to Point C then back to Point B was business related and she should only be compensated for that part.
CPA #2 says that regardless if her original plans were to go on a family trip, going to the business part should mean full compensation for the entire trip because to get from Point A (home) to Point C (meeting in Kearney) she would have had to go through Lincoln (Point B) in the first place since it was one of the most direct routes to get there.
This is causing a lot of headaches so anything you can offer would be helpful. Again, here was Beth’s route from start to finish.
Point A – Spring Hill, KS - Home
Point B – Lincoln, NE – Family
Point C – Kearney, NE – LLC Meeting
Point B - Lincoln, NE – Family
Point A – Spring Hill, KS - Home
