Cruise Ship, Conventions, Seminars and Meetings: Lets Deduct...

If you want to attend a convention, seminar, or similar meeting onboard a cruise ship and deduct all your costs, you face some very special rules. But it can be done. 

When you know the tax code rules, you will find an enlightened workaround that removes almost all the hassle and gives you what you want. 

In 1982, your lawmakers were attempting to give the U.S. cruise ship industry a leg up by outlawing all cruise ship conventions, seminars, and similar meetings other than those
 

• that take place on a vessel registered in the United States, and
• for which all ports of call of such vessel are located in the United States or in possessions of the United States.

 
The 1982 law remains on the books. Lawmakers have not updated the limits for inflation. Here’s the cruise ship convention tax code rule as it existed in 1982 and as it exists today:
 
With respect to cruises beginning in any calendar year, not more than $2,000 of the expenses attributable to an individual attending one or more meetings may be taken into account under Section 162 . . .”
 
Had the $2,000 been indexed for inflation, the 2019 amount would be a reasonable $5,431, and that would likely encourage more 2019 U.S. cruise ship convention-type travel.
 
The $2,000 is pretty skimpy when you consider that the expenses include
 

• the cost of air or other travel to get to and from the cruise ship port;
• the cost of the cruise; and
• the cost of the convention, seminar, or similar meeting.

Less Turmoil, Bigger Deduction
 
There are strategies that Spencer Accounting Group has helped clients, with tax plans, to avoid that limit, take the cruise they want, and likely deduct all your costs. 
 
Book a Business Consultation Today, we will help you strategize.

Appointment