Deducting business travel expenses for partial work/holiday

[bluesjumper]

I have an LLC, single employee (me). My LLC is a disregarded entity and I pay taxes on my individual tax return.

This summer I spent 3 weeks in Europe, a combination of holiday and work ("digital nomad"). I brought my laptop and performed 2 to 4 hours of work a day. None on the weekends. 

I'm seeking a definitive answer as to whether a 4 hour work day, aka 50% of what I billed my client, translates to a proportional 50% deduction of my business expenses for that day (e.g. meals). Or is the fact that I worked at all that day mean that I can claim 100% of the deduction? As for my flight from/to Europe, if I worked half the days on my trip, I was going to deduct half the cost of the flight. Is that correct?

[NCperson]

@bluesjumper what was the business purpose that required you to be in Europe?  if there was none, then none of the travel is deducible.  Business travel expenses require you to be traveling from a business location to a business location.   That doesn't appear to have occured.  That fact that you did work on a computer doesn't mean the travel expense changes from a personal expense to a business expense.  

Please review the link and the very first line:  Was the travel "ordinary and necessary" to conduct your business? From what you wrote, it was not necessary.  While you ordinarily do work on a computer, and meet that condition.  you don't need to travel to travel to Europe to do it., so it was not necessary    (you have to satisfy BOTH conditions - ordinary and necessary).  Hence these are not deductible business expenses. 

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc511

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

See chapter 1 of publication 463.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p463#en_US_2022_publink100033749

If the travel was primarily for business, there are special rules to follow when the travel is outside the US.  Primarily for business might mean that you were required to work on site for a client or meet with the client in person over several days.  If you add a personal vacation to a trip that is primarily for business, some of your business expenses are allowable.

However, if the purpose of the trip was primarily personal, you can't deduct meals, lodging or travel expenses as a business expense.  The only expenses you could deduct would be expenses that you only incurred because of the business and would not have incurred if not for the business activity.