Real Estate Investor Tax write-offs

[Anita Z.]

Hi, 

What do i I need to write off travel that is used to look for a property to invest in?

Do I need a business license ?

Can I write off all expenses from the trip, such as hotel, meals and travel costs like gas, or airfare?   Is 100% of these costs a write-off?

Also, as a real estate investor, can I write off 100% of the education travel for real estate,  such as the Bigger Pockets Cancun conference?

[Benjamin Weinhart]

I'll echo Zach here a little to give my own perspective if it helps.

- It's very difficult to argue about travel being a business expense if you're just going to look at properties, I would argue against it in a majority of cases.

- Depends on what you're doing specifically, but usually I'd recommend getting an EIN at least to give access to business bank accounts

- Repeating #1, if you're going to a property and 100% of your time is spent doing renovations and the like, sure, but if any of it is for personal benefit, that'd be disallowed. You'll want to enlist a CPA on this to assist you

- Repeating the above for Cancun, since it's a vacation destination already, I'd almost guarantee you that you cannot write it off 100%

In regards to travel, it's also important to remember that even if everything is used 100% for business, the IRS classifies business expenses being valid if they're "ordinary and necessary". What this means is that if you own 1 or 2 rental properties out of state, you'd only be able to expense an economy flight/reasonable accomodations. If you owned a few thousand rental properties, you could argue that owning a private jet is a significant time saving tool and well worth the cost. It's all relative and subject to change based on each individual person.