Can travel expenses be deducted from Form 1040A if they were used to gather material for a book?
"Hobby expenses are not tax deductible.  Business expenses are, but only if it's a bona fide business.  First they look at profitability: if you reported a net profit (i.e. paid taxes) in your first 3 years, they will believe you rant on Youtube for a living.   Remember, by the time they get around to auditing you, you'll likely be well into, or through, your third year.   There is an exception for farms.  Other than that, if you lose money year after year, you better be able to show that you look, walk and quack like a business; and one with a reasonable business reason for delayed profitability.  For instance Netflix's old business model of mailing DVDs had very high fixed infrastructure expense that took years to turn profitable, but was a very sensible model.  They're fine with that.  Pets.com swandived into oblivion but they earnestly tried. They're fine with that too.  You can't mix all your activities. If you're an electrician specializing in IoT and smart homes, can you deduct a trip to the CES trade show, you bet.  Blackhat conference, arguable.  SES?  No way.  Now if you had a second business of a product-reco site which profited by ads and affiliate links, then SES would be fine to deduct from that business.  But if this second business loses money every year, it's a hobby and not deductible at all.  That person would want separate accounting books for the electrician and webmaster businesses.  That's a basic ""duck test"" of a business vs. a hobby. You need to be able to show how each business gets income and pays expense separate from every other business and your personal life.  It's a best-practice to give each business a separate checking account and checkbook. You don't need to risk tax penalties on a business-larva that may never pupate.  You can amend your taxes up to 3 years after the proper filing date.  I save my expense reciepts for each tax year, and if a business becomes justifiable, I go back and amend past years' tax forms, taking those deductions.  IRS gives me a refund check, with interest!"
Credit card fees on a credit card used for personal expenses are not tax deductible. Credit card fees on a business credit card are deductible on schedule C (or whatever form you're using to report business income and expenses). If you are using the same card for both business and personal ... well, for starters, this is a very bad idea, because it creates exactly the question you're asking. If that's what you're doing, stop, and get separate business and personal cards. If you have separate business and personal cards -- and use the business card only for legitimate business expenses -- then the answer is easy: You can claim a schedule C deduction for any service charges on the business card, and you cannot claim any deduction for any charges on the personal card. In general, though, if you have an expense that is partly business and partly personal, you are supposed to figure out what percentage is business, and that is deductible. In an admittedly brief search, I couldn't find anything specifically about credit cards, but I did find this similar idea on the IRS web site: Generally, you cannot deduct personal, living, or family expenses. However, if you have an expense for something that is used partly for business and partly for personal purposes, divide the total cost between the business and personal parts. You can deduct the business part. For example, if you borrow money and use 70% of it for business and the other 30% for a family vacation, you can deduct 70% of the interest as a business expense. The remaining 30% is personal interest and is not deductible. Refer to chapter 4 of Publication 535, Business Expenses, for information on deducting interest and the allocation rules. (https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/deducting-business-expenses) So, PROBABLY, you could add up all the charges you made on the card, figure out how much was for business and how much for personal, calculate the business percentage, and then deduct this percentage of the service fees. If the amount involved is not trivial, you might want to talk to an accountant or a lawyer. I looked at Publication 463 (2014), Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses  for examples. I thought this was the mot relevant. No regular place of work.   If you have no regular place of work but   ordinarily work in the metropolitan area where you live, you can   deduct daily transportation costs between home and a temporary work   site outside that metropolitan area. Generally, a metropolitan area includes the area within the city   limits and the suburbs that are considered part of that metropolitan   area. You cannot deduct daily transportation costs between your home and   temporary work sites within your metropolitan area. These are   nondeductible commuting expenses. This only deals with transportation to and from the temporary work site.  Transportation expenses do not include expenses you have while   traveling away from home overnight. Those expenses are travel expenses   discussed in chapter 1 . However, if you use your car while traveling   away from home overnight, use the rules in this chapter to figure your   car expense deduction. See Car Expenses , later. You will also have to consider the cost of tolls of the use of a  trailer if those apply. The answer is simple. You can generally claim a deduction for an expense if that expense was used to derive an income. Of course social policy sometimes gets in the way and allows for deductions where they usually wouldn't be allowed. Your rent is not tax deductible because this expense is not used to derive your income. If however you were working from your home, example - you had a home based business, and you dedicated a part of your home for your work, say an office, then part of your rent may then become tax deductible. I used to think the physical books were great but I'm definitely over that.  You end up with shelves of books you'll probably never open again.  It just contributes to the clutter.  Oddly I feel the opposite about text books from the parent commentor.  I feel like text books are still handier and more functional in paper form.  A digital copy would be useful for doing searches maybe but provided the book has a good index that should be covered. I think you're making a mistake. If you still want to make this mistake (I'll explain later why I think its a mistake), the resources for you are: IRS.GOV - The IRS official web site, that has all the up-to-date forms and instructions for them, guiding publications and the relevant rules. You might get a bit overwhelmed through. Software programs - TurboTax (Home & Business for a sole propriator or single member LLC, Business for more complicated business), or H&R Block Business (only one version that should cover all) are for your guidance. They provide tips and interactive guidance in filling in all the raw data, and produce all the forms filled for you according to the raw data you entered. I personally prefer TurboTax, I think its interface is nicer and the workflow is more intuitive, but that's my personal preference. I wrote about it in my blog last year. Both also include plug-ins for the state taxes (If I remember correctly, for both the first state is included in the price, if you need more than 1 state - there's extra $30-$40 per state). Your state tax authority web site (Minnesota Department of Revenue in your case). Both Intuit and H&R Block have on-line forums where people answer each others questions while using the software to prepare the taxes, you might find useful information there. As always, Google is your friend. Now, why I think this is a mistake. Mistakes that you make - will be your responsibility. If you use the software - they'll cover the calculation mistakes. But if you write income in a wrong specification or take a wrong deduction that you shouldn't have taken - it will be on your head and you're the one to pay the fines and penalties for that. Missed deductions and credits - CPA's (should) know about all the latest deductions and credits that you or your business might be entitled to. They also (should) know which one got canceled and you shouldn't be continuing taking them if you had before. Expenses - there are plenty of rules of what can be written off as an expense and how. Some things should be written off this year, others over several years, for some depreciation formula should be used, etc etc. Tax programs might help you with that, but again - mistakes are your responsibility. Especially for the first time and for the newly formed business, I think you should use a (good!) CPA. The CPA should take responsibility over your filing. The CPA should provide guarantee that based on the documents you provided, he filled all the necessary forms correctly, and will absorb all the fees and penalties if there's an audit and mistakes were found not because you withheld information from your CPA, but because the CPA made a mistake. That costs money, and that's why the CPA's are more expensive than using a program or preparing yourself. But, the risk is much higher, especially for a new business. And after all - its a business expense. I am a very light TurboTax user and have expensed a laptop in the past (since it was used exclusively for work) and used the itemized deduction there and has no issues.  Just not sure if there was a limit or anything of note to realize ahead of time.  Thanks! There is a tax advantage only for medical expenses exceeding 10% of your adjusted gross income (7.5% if over age 65).  This limit means only a very few people can take advantage of the deduction. The expenses would be entered on Schedule A (itemized deductions) of form 1040. You don't have to send in the supporting documentation, but you have to keep it in your records to present if audited. Yes, a copay qualifies as an expense, but needs supporting documentation. For larger items such as cars this is certainly possible; I've donated a car before (in Canada) and got a tax receipt that was probably worth more than I would have got from a dealer for the car. However with donations of this kind there are two obstacles: Two other options for you to consider. Most medium towns have used book shops which you can sell them to. If the used book shops don't want them then your books really aren't worth enough to be worrying about, in which case see option two: give the books to a charity or thrift shop and don't worry about the receipt. Sometimes a nice feeling is the best return you will get.