Originally Posted by
LaserSailor
So if your employer gives you money and you travel it’s your money, but if my clients give me. Money and I spend it it’s OPM?
got it,
Good point. It is hard to understand the business owner perspective sometimes.
Originally Posted by
rankourabu
Of course it's OPM. At the very least it's tax-deductible and you're never paying full fare.
That’s not OPM. Tax deductible doesn’t make it someone else’s money. It’s discounted but still I benefit from using the money smartly. If the money isn’t spent, it goes to my business account that increases my net worth. The incentive structure for OPM is different.
But I am very grateful that my travel can be discounted so much. That is a reason why I love owning my company. For me and my employees I spend almost $250K on travel each year. I won’t spend that much without tax benefits.
For status it changes the calculus because I won’t blindly choose United flights if it is so much more expensive than the rest. For my HKG example earlier, I note I only choose it because it is not much more expensive to fly United on that route in business class and there are other non status benefits to fly it. If United was 25% more expensive, I wouldn’t fly it because I think it’s a waste of money. For OPM someone may still fly it if policy allows.