How to write off your travel

  • Do you have a business reason for your travel?
  • If you are traveling for business, those expenses can be written off.
  • If you are traveling for a personal reason, you cannot deduct those expenses.

Hey everyone, it’s Shauna the Tax Goddess, and today I am talking on our Without Bags channel about how to write off your travel. So if you’re on this channel, that means you love travel as much as I do. I figured I would film in front of one of my favorite finds, Japanese kimono. I absolutely love this and it’s so pretty. But anyway, I love love love to travel, and one of my favorite bits about traveling is because traveling is a business for me; I’ve got clients all over the world, I’ve got vendors all over the world, and of course … oh darn … I’ve got you guys. I’ve got Without Bags followers all over the world. So traveling is a business for me, which means that I am allowed to write off my travel. Now in order to do that, of course you have to have a business.

Without Bags, for me, is a business. Of course, I love filming for you guys but you guys know that I’m always up front with you and telling you guys the whole truth and nothing but the truth, the benefits of being a CPA as well. So Without Bags is a business for me. If you guys have noticed, in some … I try to keep it very very few … in some of our posts, we will link to an Amazon affiliate account or sometimes you’ll see some advertising using Commission Junction. These are ways in which our website, Without Bags, makes revenue. Now, without revenue, according to the IRS … you have to have revenue, you have to have income for anything to be considered a business. So in order to write off the travel, I highly recommend that you guys have a business that allows you to travel to wherever it is you want to go.

On my CPA side, sometimes I’ll travel to business conferences, sometimes I’ll travel to go visit one of our vendors or some of our clients. Then on our Without Bags side, I’m traveling to bring you guys awesome tips and trips and hacks and beautiful locations and video and filming and everything else. If you’re interested in writing off your travel, make sure that you’re talking to your CPA, your tax preparer. In the meantime, enjoy Without Bags, enjoy the information, and all of the lovely photographs and stories and craziness and life that happens when you travel. So happy to be here with you guys on our Without Bags channel, and thank you so much for bringing this travel dream of mine to a reality. All right, have a great day. Signing off, Shauna the Without Bags Tax Goddess. I’ll see you guys later. Bye.

 

Airplane to Dublin!

Hey guys; it’s Shauna from Without Bags. I’m currently sitting on the plane on my way to Dublin. I’ve got a few client meetings out this way in most of Northern Europe. And of course going to see some awesome stuff while I’m there. So I’ll keep you guys posted and let you guys know what’s going on and what kind of details we have and what’s awesome and fun in Dublin. So I’ll see you guys when we get there in about seven hours. All right, bye.

On the way to Tromso

Hey guys! It’s Shawna, correspondent from Without Bags, and I wanted to give you guys a little bit of a view of where we’re at. So, still on the postal boat in Norway, and absolutely lovely views. We’ve just stopped here in one of the little cities to pick up some mail, and pick up some cars. Apparently that’s one of the biggest transports up and down the coast here. Let’s walk around and give you guys a view off of the boat today.

So this is where we’re at. You can see some of the absolutely amazing, gorgeous views. The little houses are just adorable, with all the colors, so brightly painted. They use a lot of red here. Apparently red is to designate fish. Fishing boats or houses, or processing plants. Anything related to fish. Later today, for dinner, I’ll be having some of this. Dried salt fish, I think it’s called. I don’t know, it kind of looks yummy but it looks a little scary. Those jaws look scary, but, anyway. So I wanted to give you guys a little view of where we’re at. Some of these mountain ranges are absolutely phenomenal. You can see … just lovely.

It’s actually not all that bad here. As long as the wind isn’t blowing, it’s just really not all that cold. Here I am, I’m in my vest, of course, but collar open. Not quite as bad as when there was snow and it was really blowing the other day. I’ve actually been sitting out on the patio having some tea. It’s really, really rather quite nice, as long as there’s no wind. No breeze. But in the meantime, get to enjoy these absolutely fantastic and amazing views.

Hope you guys are having a great day, and look forward to, hopefully bringing you some video from the dogsleds later today. I’ll talk to you guys later. All right. Bye.

Live in Arctic Circle

Hey everybody. Today was my last full day on the boat, the MS Cong Herald. I am currently in Norway in the Arctic Circle eating ice cream, in the afternoon on a boat. I thought I would share with you guys my view, let’s see if we can get the camera turned around here. It was absolutely breath-taking and absolutely lovely. It’s little chilly out here with my ice cream and I’m seriously considering that hot tub right now, because it looks fantastic, but I don’t know, I’ve been saying that for three days, so I think I’m going to go back in and eat some ice cream. So hope you guys are having a great day and I will talk to you later. Bye.

Sunrise & Sunset

  • Arctic Circle : At one point, when we were way up far north, in Tromso, and even Kirkenes in far north Norway, there was really no darkness.
  • The difference between sunset and sunrise was about an hour and a half. I tried staying up one night to watch it but it was very difficult.
  • There was only about 20 minutes of actual darkness; all the other time it was daylight.

Hey, guys. It’s Shauna, a correspondent for Without Bags, coming to you live from our headquarters in Scottsdale. Today, I want to talk about the importance of the sunrise and the sunset. You never really realize how much the sunrise, especially coming from a super sunny place like Arizona, you never really realize how much sunrise and sunset are going to impact you. In the past trip, if you joined along with us, you can see all of our hysterical and historical videos on our Facebook Live channel for Without Bags.

You can see we were up, way, way, way up, actually in the Arctic Circle. At one point, when we were way up far north, Tromso and even Kirkenes in far north Norway, there was really no darkness. What we were looking at was an hour and a half. The difference between sunset and sunrise was about an hour and a half. Really, I was trying to watch it. I tried to stay up one night to watch it. There was only about 20 minutes of actual darkness. Everything else was basically daylight. It kind of looked like this. Of course, it’s much brighter outside. We’ve got some tinting on the windows here, but yeah. There was only about 20 minutes of actual darkness. Everything else was really dusk, sunset and sunrise.

Really, what that did, especially for me, was it kind of threw me for a loop. I was having problems sleeping, having problems getting up at a regular time because my brain kept seeing sunlight. I wanted to stay awake, it was daytime, trying to stay in a sunlight. I remember reading an article years ago that talked about our cavemen ancestors way back when and how this is how we ended up with different sleep patterns is that some people were basically born to be night people and they evolved that way so that they would protect the rest of us, the daytime people, while we were sleeping. But the majority of people were daytime people because those are the people, the hunters and the gatherers, and we had to go out and find berries, and it was a lot easier to survive when there was light outside than it was in the dark.

I just found the whole arctic experience really super interesting. 20 minutes, I’m not so sure that I can deal. I don’t know how everybody lives up there. That’s got to be really tough to deal with only 20 minutes of dark. They definitely have some really thick curtains and shades that they would pull down over the windows. I thought I would share my little adventure. If you are rise by the sunrise and go to bed by the sunset kind of person, going that far into the arctic circle can be a little rough.

I would love to hear your feedback. If anybody else has been up that far north up in Tromso or Kirkenes, I would love to get your guys’ feedback on the videos, on the places we’ve gone to. I would love to get any of your commentaries, so definitely subscribe. We love it, and we are working on getting all of the blog posts over to the blog for our Without Bags channel. Hope you guys are having an amazing day, and we will talk to you later. All right, thanks, guys! Bye.

King crab fishing in Kirkenes

 

Hey guys, It’s Shauna, correspondent from Without Bags, live here from Kirkeness. Today we went king crab fishing, so sorry I couldn’t get you guys live video of the actual king crab fishing, so right now we are cooking the crab, and we’re about to eat, and so, so excited. In this really awesome place, I’m going to see if I can get you some video here. So that’s our king crab cooking right there, steaming. And this is where we’re at right now. Can see it’s absolutely gorgeous as usual, most of Norway, just lovely you know. All the good bits here. There’s our king crab cooking. And our fantastic captain.

And this is where we’re going to be eating today. Thank goodness for some hot chocolate, hot tea, they have beer, most important to go with king crab, so this has been one hell of a trip and this is a great way to cap off the last day in Norway. Yeah, you know what, this country is pretty amazing. And the people are really, really cool and super friendly, super nice. Definitely a little chilly if you can see all the snow that’s going by, but you know I can definitely highly, highly recommend coming to Norway. So if anybody’s looking for an awesome place to go, the Hurdy Gurden postal ship is what we were taking, going up and down the coast, and through all the fjords, and so if anybody’s looking to coming to Norway, this is awesome.

What I can tell you is that all of this weather is supposedly really, really strange for Norway, even this far north in Kirkeness. Typically by April 20th, it is spring and everything’s green and flowers and things are starting to bloom, and as you can tell, we’re still having blizzards and snow, you know, yay for climate change changing everything. Anyway, thanks so much guys and I hope you guys are having a great day, and I’ll be heading today or tomorrow, I spend one night here in Kirkeness and then back to Bergen in lower Norway, and from Bergen back to Dublin. So we’ll be a few more days in Dublin. And then Dublin/London, back to Phoenix. So after 7 weeks on the road, I’m super excited about heading home, but signing off at least for today, correspondent Shuana from Without Bags. I hope you guys are having an amazing day and where ever you are, love to hear from you guys what kind of trips and adventures you guys are taking. So, I’ll see you guys later. Thanks. Bye.

Oh no! Tumi help! What a birthday

Hey guys; its Shauna from Without Bags. Today has been a very interesting day, if you don’t know me today is my birthday so yay I’m getting to spend my birthday in Bergen, Norway. It is absolutely lovely and let me see if I can get you a view out this window and show you where we’re at today. I know we were in Bergen last week, but flying back through here to head out to Dublin tomorrow, and then Dublin for a few more days, and then back to London, and back to hometown of Arizona. This has definitely been one heck of a trip for Without Bags and I’m super excited to head home, especially being so close to my birthday. Couple things to start off with. I want to say thank you, I want to do a shout out to some people that I absolutely adore. They called the hotel and got everything organized in advance and when I came in to the hotel room today.it was an absolute shock and amazement. It is lovely and what a surprise. Let me show you what I walked into in the room today.

I have to give a huge shout out to the people downstairs because this is what’s going on today. After all this awesomeness for my birthday and so many birthday wishes, I was bringing my bag upstairs. My one carry on, bringing it upstairs and guess what happened? The handle came off in my hand, literally broke on my Tumi bag. For those of you that travel Tumi is supposedly a top brand bag and the bag itself is perfectly fine, let’s give you a view here of the bag. This is my one carryon, you can see I love it. It’s got tons of pockets, it does expand, and you can see it’s got this really nice hard, kind of hard shell which is great. That part of the handle completely came off in my hand. Now, me most importantly and part of the reason why I am in love with the staff here. They found superglue which we’re hoping is going to hold. If you could see that we had a little bit of superglue around the edge and we put some superglue on the inside. We’re letting it dry overnight, hopefully it will hold, Loctite so we’ll see. They had three janitors and three people at the front desk and everybody was trying to help and figure out how to glue this thing back together again, so I have to say good on you hotel Edvard Grieg for trying to figure out how to get this thing connected

Tip for the day, if your handle breaks definitely of course check with your hotel, see if there’s anything they can do to help you, but I had remembered something that I had seen I believe it was in Brazil 10 years ago. Where when they were packing your box, your purchase or whatever, they would actually make handles for your bag, for your big paper box using plastic grocery bags. You’d roll up the plastic bag into a little tiny thin strip and you tape one side to one part of the box and one side to the other part of the box and now you have a handle for your box. I remembered this idea and so the hotel desk gave me two Edvard Grieg bags and some black duct tape type stuff and we made our own handle. Thank you to the Brazilians from 10 years ago showing me the awesome trick about using plastic bags as handles. I think it’s going to hold up pretty well but obviously as we go through it I will let you guys know. One if Tumi fixes the bag because it supposedly has a lifetime warranty, and two if the plastic handle holds up. Thanks so much guys, I hope you’re having a great day and I will talk to you all later, bye

Musiffhistorist museum in Trondheim

Hey guys, so we’re now at the music history museum in Trondheim so it should be pretty interesting, and we’ll give you guys a view of where we’re at. Apparently, the actual city of Trondheim was so bad in the summer time because they buried all the rich people in the church underneath the floor of church, and so the smell was really, really, really bad. It was a major fishing traffic area so all of the wealthy people would go out to the country side, which was all of maybe a 10 minute drive from the main city. We are now on somebody’s farm that has been converted to the museum, sorry to the music museum. We’re just getting some tags here.

Everybody received a little ticket? Yes, very well. The museum has two types one exhibition downstairs, which is a guided tour and the instrument collection, which is upstairs in the museum, and we will visit the instrument museum first, so follow me.

Down the hatchet.

Where we are now is actually an old farm, but now it’s a musical museum so right here is where they used to keep the pigs, and the instrument collection we call it the barn, because it was part of the old barn. For the guided tour we’ll meet here at ten to eleven. I will follow you up to the instrument collection and feel free to ask me any questions you have. My name is Natalie and I’m here for you, here to help you so follow me and we’ll go upstairs. We have an elevator, some of you prefer an elevator? No, so the others will wait and I’ll come back.

We can wait. I like the ducks they’re cute. Thank you. Really cool. God look at all of these. It’s not quite as modern as the modern instrument museum in Phoenix, but … Cool. The organ that we saw in that church actually had 10,000 pipes, it’s a German organ. Actually that’s pretty cool, so these are little pipes, little music pipes and they’ve got tags from all over the world. Germany, Romania, Estonia, Norway, Guatemala, Portugal, Denmark, it’s cool because I have seen these little like children’s pipes all over the world, everywhere I go.

For my violin friends, I’m calling out to one of our correspondence Avi Goodman, he’s an absolute fanatic for violins, circa the 1820’s. How cool, a harp piano, awesome. I don’t think you guys can see that but the strings on this thing are super thick, and all the way down to super, super fine, as it goes all the way back. How cool. Always loved harp music. Oh that’s cool, look number 124 there it’s like a viking ship harp. 124 let’s see, a bow harp out of Burma, that’s cool. I guess it’s not quite a viking ship if it’s from Burma but there you go.

Harpsichord, a virginal, the string of the virginal is plucked by a plectrum in the same way that a harpsichord. 

How beautiful, look at that inlay. More violins for my violin fanatics out there, these are from the 1760’s, 1790’s some of the inlay on these things is just beautiful.

We got stopped from filming. But owner of the farm was a rich Russian, a pianist, and they wanted to create a museum of instruments from all over the world.