Originally Posted by
cockpitvisit
Can an extra stopover with the sole purpose of reducing the cost of the trip be claimed as a business expense?
No, even the utilization of a "Sunday return rule" will cause the fiscal authorities to split the costs into a deductable and non-deductable portion if you only deliver the argument that you spent the Sunday window shopping to save costs.
Though, the taxman will have no chance it you (claim to) visit a potential customer in Bora-Bora, have to visit a potential supplier in HNL or start as a self employed architect studies of the SYD harbour bridge. As soon as you can give a sound reason (and run a real business) there will not be too much question. In general they have no way to verify it and as long as your reasoning is at least coherent they will buy it.
It all changes if you are - let me say work as history teacher - and try to make a RTW a tax deductable because you argue you had to inform yourself about history teaching all around the globe...