Easily Become a Travel Agent for Huge Tax Write-Offs
How are most small business owners losing thousands of dollars every year? Eva Rosenberg, author of Small Business Taxes Made Easy notes, “Many small businesses are cheating themselves out of at least $2,000 to $3,000 worth of tax benefits a year by not knowing the deductions and credits available to them.” For travel agents, travel is a tax write-off — whether to an industrial center or an island resort! If a purpose is to discuss business with other travelers, have business appointments, or to attend a business-related seminar, you go tax free. Travel agents may also deduct their travel if it is simply for the purpose of familiarizing themselves with a resort, ship, tour, etc. This means that almost any travel an agent does can be a tax write-off! It is helpful if prior to the trip you can substantiate prior planning for familiarization or for making business contacts. Your spouse’s travel can even be deductible if the individual is part of your business or his or her presence is helpful in conducting your business. Transportation expenses include all those costs incurred getting to and from your destination: airfare, vehicle, on-the-road expenses such as lodging, meals, laundry, dry cleaning, and others. For fees under $75 it is not necessary to keep receipts. For example, if while traveling you pay $20 for dry cleaning, the IRS does not demand a receipt. The only exception is for lodging. If you stay overnight, you must get a receipt for your payment. If you drive your car, 300 miles per day is allowable tax free. For foreign travel, you can deduct all weekends and holidays that fall between business days and you can deduct on-the-road expenses for days in transit. In the case of cruise ships, you can claim it as a deduction if you can substantiate that you used the trip to familiarize yourself with this cruise package/ship. First and foremost, whether you’re in the travel business or some other, the IRS’s primary requirement is that you legitimately treat your home business as a business — not a hobby. That means regularly working your business. Hand out your business card, talk to people, all the time, everywhere you go about travel. Let them know you are a travel agent and would appreciate their business. When you’re out to lunch or dinner with other travel agents, prospects, or friends and you discuss “business”, your meal is 50 percent tax deductible. Some try to also write off trips to the theater, opera, or sports events because they’re “entertaining a possible client.” Be careful with this one. Entertainment expenses are generally non-deductible. If you try to claim deductions for sporting events, gala or social nights, concerts or other similar functions you’d better be able to substantiate that you were dealing with possible customers. If you definitely discuss business matters with a client or possible client while at the event, this does open the door to a possible deduction. Home to work travel is deductible in limited circumstances – for example, if you are engaged in itinerant work, but many independent travel agents have a home office. A home office deduction is available if a portion of your home is used as a principal place of business, you meet or deal with clients or customers, you use it to conduct administrative or management functions, or you store some sort of inventory or product samples. You should use your office at least three to four days per week or 10 to 12 hours per week. In regard to indirect business expenses, you can receive a deduction of approximately 12 to 16 percent based on the square footage or the number of rooms in your home. Home computers, fax machines, telephones, office supplies, and office furniture are tax deductible. But it’s important to have your home office on business cards, have business visitors sign a logbook, keep a work-activity log for time spent, or be able to demonstrate work you have accomplished online from your home office. It is wise to keep a separate “tax diary” of appointments, general transportation, meals, trips, business appointments, contacts. If the IRS ever questions your claims and you don’t have receipts for everything, this tax diary will be of great assistance. So what in heaven’s name are you waiting for? If you love travel and have some time to travel, becoming a travel agent is a no-brainer. It is easy and inexpensive to become an agent and between hugely discounted trips and the tax write-offs, the savings can be almost unlimited.
Sports Fishing – Become A Menber Of The Worldwide Community
Hundreds of thousands of sports fishers enjoy fishing-oriented events, competitions, and fishing expeditions designed for all levels – from novices to well-seasoned game fishermen. The perfect practice for people who love being outdoors in nature, enjoy quiet solitude or building close relationships with a few friends, and thrive on the challenge of learning the skills needed to attract, catch, and land the ever-evasive fish.
Opportunities to Learn Sport Fishing Basics
Anglers (who use a hook to fish) and other fishermen at all skill levels have a variety of ways to learn their craft. While many fishers learn the sport by first-hand trial and error experience, fishing schools are a great way to learn the basic techniques, whether you’re interested in game fishing, fly fishing, ice fishing, or rock fishing. Fishing guides not only teach you how to get the best results, but they show you where you can find the fish you’re after. Joining a group of more experienced fishers or a fishing charter tour will help you learn from the more experienced while you enjoy a group fishing adventure. You can even pick up tips and techniques when you visit boat shows!
No matter how your learn, you’re sports fishing education should include techniques for:
• Knots
• Wire Twists
• Hooks
• Tackle Maintenance
• Wind-on Leaders
• Crimps
• Splices
• Building Riggs
• Angling techniques
• Learning basic equipment
Popular Sport Fishing Spots
In the United States, locations people choose for sports fishing depend on the type of experience they want and the species of fish they want to catch. Inland freshwater fishing, where sports fishers enjoy casting, working with exotic lures, and gathering the food for a great fish fry, is best in cool-weather climates. But warm-water streams, rivers, and lakes also offer abundant rewards.
Inland freshwater fishing offers good eating species like trout, bass, catfish, crappie, minnows, sunfishes, and carp. Among many popular inland locations for sports fishing are:
• Chattooga River near Clayton, South Carolina
• Owens River near Mammoth Lakes, California
• Jacks River near Knoxville, Tennessee
• Mountain streams at Slate Run, Pennsylvania
• Deerfield River near Charlemont, Massachusetts
• Conasaugua and Jacks Rivers near Crandall, Georgia
• Cranberry River near Richwood, West Virginia
• Upper Connecticut River near Pittsburgh, New Hampshire
• North Branch of the Potomac River near Bloomington, Maryland
• South Platte River near Denver, Colorado
• Lake Eufaula near Eufaula, Oklahoma
• Great Lakes
American sport fishers who want to stay in the States and enjoy the challenges of saltwater fishing find great spots in harbors and on coastlines as well as out in deep ocean waters. Just a few of many popular locations for game fishing, where sports fishers seek the bigger, faster adversary include:
• Cape Cod, Cape Ann and Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts
• Charters from Atlantic City, New Jersey
• Long Island, New York
• Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island
• Albemarle Sound, Cape Fear, and Cape Lookout, North Carolina
• Middle Chesapeake Bay
• Charleston Harbor and Winyah Bay, South Carolina
• Apalachee Bay and Apalachicola Bay to Cape San Blas, Florida
• East Cape To Naples Bay, Florida
• St Joseph, St Andrew and Choctawhatchee Bays, Florida
• Tampa Bay to Crystal River, Florida
• Mouth of the Mississippi River, near Venice, Louisiana
• Corpus Christi, Texas
• Matagorda Island to Aranasas Pass, San Antonio Bay, Texas
• Matagorda to Aransas Pass, Carlos Bay to Redfish Bay Texas
• Mississippi Sound to Cat Island Lake Borgne, Mississippi
• Laguna Madre, Texas
• Channel Islands, California
• Baja California, Pacific Side
• Mission Bay and San Diego Bay, California
• Santa Catalina, San Clemente Islands, California
• Alaska Coastline, anywhere
• Hawaii Coastline, anywhere
Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, and Hawaii are among the most popular game fishing locations internationally. And sports fishing can be found near any major international port and near mature reef systems. For sports fishers who want to get experience outside the United States, just a few of many popular locations include:
• Caribbean Islands
• Offshore Mexico, particularly Baja California
• Eastern Coastline of Australia
• Costa Rica
• Egypt
• Samoa
• Tahiti