Can I deduct business travel as an independent consultant?

The 'away from home' requirement: you must be away from your tax home (your principal place of business, usually where you live and work) long enough that rest or sleep is necessary before returning. A long day trip does not qualify for hotel deductions but may qualify for meal deductions if the distance is substantial. An overnight stay is the cleaner test.

What is deductible: airfare at economy class rates (first class can be challenged as lavish unless you can document a business reason), hotel at ordinary reasonable rates, rental car for business use (prorated if personal use occurs), Uber and taxi between business locations, parking at the client site or conference venue, tolls, and 50% of meals while traveling.

Mixed personal and business trips: if you attend a three-day conference in San Francisco and extend the trip by two personal vacation days, you can deduct the airfare (primary purpose is business), hotel for the three conference days, and meals and transportation for the three business days. The two personal vacation days' hotel and meals are not deductible. The 'primary purpose' test applies to the entire trip: if the trip is primarily personal with a business meeting tacked on, only the directly attributable business costs (such as a separate conference registration or a specific client meeting day) are deductible.

International travel: if you travel outside the United States for business, special rules apply when more than 25% of the days are personal. You must prorate the airfare by business days to total days. If more than 75% of the trip is business, the full airfare is deductible. Document the business purpose for each day.

Documentation: flight and hotel receipts, conference agenda or client meeting notes, a calendar showing business activities each day of the trip. For meal receipts, document the business purpose and people present. Contemporaneous records (captured at the time, not reconstructed later) are the audit standard. A business travel app or a shared Google Drive folder organized by trip is a clean system.