Trafficbroker

the tax authorities also often ask for the boarding passes so the pattern should make sense.

Rambuster

I have also been asked in the past by the tax man to provide the boarding passes. This was for a one night trip FRA-ATL-FRA. They wanted to make sure that I didn't spend more time in the US as a vacation after my meeting.

ulev

There is no obligation to archive BPs. One of the smart basics on handling tax issues in advance is to keep as few records of your business dealings as possible.

Flying Lawyer

That will only work if there are ONLY tickets with that stop over rule available on the market. If you can buy more exepensive tickets without the stop over rule, you will find no mercey. So better do not mention Fiji

Flying Lawyer

It is not as easy as that: As few as possible but as much as necessary.

But you are right: I would never ever keep boarding passes for tax reasons. They are not part of my "Handelsbücher" or any other statutory records. As you are even entitled to claim lump sum deductions for hotels outside Germany you do not even have to present any hotel bills.

At the end of the day, one or the other invoice, bus ticket or restaurant bill would be helpful to make credible that you were there.

Pfaelzer

What about stamps in the passport? Any advantage/disadvantage of disclosing them if it is necessary. Or will it just raise suspicion again as to why you were in which place?

Rambuster

Many countries do not stamp the passport at departure (e.g. US). Anyway all of this will only be relevant if you get audited.

SleepOverGreenland

Absolutely correct and after a few unpleasant audits I know, what I'm talking about.
I had problems a couple years ago with a US East Coast meeting Wed-Fri, a one day private stay (Sat) on East Coast and flying to West Coast on Sun for a Mon-Tue meeting. The tax auditor counted the total amount for the trip and the total days and then declared the 1 day stay on that Sat to be private, which was about 15% of the entire cost.

Well, when I stepped through the report I asked my business partner on East Coast to write and backdate me a declaration, that I was in their office for a hardware/server review on that Sat. That worked around finally.

Since then I do not even spend an hour more for private purposes, when on a business trip. Saving money, as already said, does not count at all for a tax auditor, who really wants to punch you.

Pfaelzer

What were you supposed to do on Saturday? Would it have been acceptable if you said you had no activity at all, private or business. Just sitting in your hotel room waiting for time to pass by?

ulev

This is a very wise statement. However, w/o criteria for measurement, quite meaningless. Lawyers even get paid for stuff like that.

To expand a little further on that: You potentially find yourself in a much worse situation making too many records available to the authorities, instead of not enough. Works well all over the world, except in Russia or Venezuela if you are in the oil industry.

Just give them enough, to keep them from estimating your taxes.

SmilingBoy

You wanted to say: read and post on FT!

SmilingBoy.

Flying Lawyer

At least as useless a my statement and you even do not have to be a lawyer to express useless advice .

It can only be decided on a case to case basis and it depends what you really have done in a certain location. Imagine being a tax inspector yourself: You cannot ask for more as statutory records ("Handelsbücher") but you can ask for these. This requires YOU to have all invoices at hand - not more and not less.

Sometimes you might not have any invoices. Eg. flown to Berlin on an AB award and stayed at the Hyatt on points. Maybe this is the moment you think about that you might have used your car. I will not propose that you make any false declaration - if someone would do so, he/she would certainly buy a ticket from a parking meter....

Restaurant bills are always helpful. Bus tickets are....

SleepOverGreenland

The question was more, what I did not do. Assumption was, that Saturday was not used for business. Then it is private per definition and it doesn't matter, what one does then.

Well, it was in 1998 and I found a solution for that (as mentioned). Interestingly before 1999 I had only a few business trips and so each business trip was suspect for them (e.g. check CC history and CC history of wife and so on). Since then my travel pattern significantly increased and tax audits got easier. Looks like, even a taxman understands, that it can't be just fun to travel an average of 6 to 10 trips a month with 1 or 2 longhaul roundtrips.

ulev

So glad I got out of baby sitting ...ahh... consulting a year ago. But obviously it still shows.

Pfaelzer

I would doubt that. I work as international consultant, very frequently doing trips of several weeks, which usually include the weekends. Never had a problem in claiming them and charging the per diems for it.

I think it just raises doubts if you pay for something of your trip out of your own pocket, even for 1 night at a hotel or so.