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292.0. "Readers, Help! Ireland travel/IRS deductions" by DPDMAI::OREILLY (My wife and dog are more Irish!) Tue Nov 17 1987 15:51

    Readers of the Irish Notesfile, especially those residing in Ireland,
    I need your help!
    
    My wife and I will be leaving for Ireland in less than 4 weeks for
    a 3 week vacation.  We would like to conduct some business while
    over in Ireland so we can deduct the expense from our taxes.
    
    There are a couple of organizations that I could meet with while
    there that (I hope) would make sense to the IRS.
    
    Is there a "Professional Engineering Society" in Ireland?  It would
    consist of degreed engineers who have passsed some sort of testing
    requirement.  Over here it's done mainly so that structures designed
    and built for the public's use are safe because "professional
    engineers" have stamped the drawings with their seal.  If the name,
    address and international phone number of this or similiar group
    could be found it would be appreciated.
                  
    The second group that I could meet with is a group that would benefit
    from my experience with clean rooms.  It could be a "contamination
    control society", some sort of environmental science society, perhaps
    a semiconductor manufacuturer's group, pharmaceutical manaufacturer's
    group or other group that uses clean room technology.
    
    Finally, any comments on the following would be appreciated:  I
    plan to meet with some Irish DECCIES.  For the most part it will
    be pleasure.  But to be completely honest, some of the "meetings"
    may have to do with planting seeds for future opportunities with
    Digital in Ireland.  However, none of these future opportunities
    are current so as to justify a manager flying me over.  The question
    is, if I tried to deduct the trip based on these "meetings" with
    Digital employees, would the IRS say, "if this expense was for business why
    did you pay for the expenses--your company is supposed to"?    
    
    I'll be calling the president of the Scotland Contamination Control
    Society tomorrow for his ideas.
    
    Thanks for any light you can on this.  Eire, here we come!!
    
    John O'Reilly--trying hard not to hurt myself or the government!

    John,
    
    I'm not sure how the IRS handles these things under the new rules.
    I tried the same thing with a trip to Germany about two years ago.
    I was told that if I payed for a trip out of my own pocket and it
    was related to my business then I could deduct it.  However, you
    must have supporting documents.  One thing that might help would
    be a letter from you manager stating that you were doing business
    on behalf of the company during your trip.
    
    The safest thing to do is just call the IRS and ask them for the
    rules concerning these types of deductions and what documentation
    you need.
    
    Good luck,
    
    kent