MARK KOHLERMain Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, LLC · Owner at Main Street Professionals, LLC

How to Turn Business Travel Into a Write-Off

12 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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1:08

In this segment, Mark Kohler explains how wealthy business owners can convert everyday personal spending into tax‑free income by treating it as a legitimate business expense, a concept he calls “personal conversion expenses.” He emphasizes that the expense must be paid personally, related to the business, and have a clear business purpose, even if it also provides a personal benefit. Using a travel scenario, he illustrates that if a business owner travels to a city for a personal reason (e.g., visiting family) but also has a client or vendor meeting there, the entire trip can be written off as a business expense, provided the business purpose is bona‑fide and the approach isn’t overly aggressive. The key takeaway is to ensure a legitimate business purpose, document it properly, and then you can enjoy personal time on the same trip while still receiving a tax deduction.

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Wealthy business owners don't ask, how much should I pay myself? They ask, what's the smartest way to take the money out of my business? And this brings us to turn everyday business spending into deductions. A lot of times I call these personal conversion expenses. You're going to pay for some of these things personally anyway, so let's make sure they're related to the business. Now you get a write off and it's tax free income. So you're taking money out of the business for an expense. That's justifiable. It's a business expense, but it might also have a personal benefit. That's when things get fun. So let's talk about travel just for a moment here as an example. As we go through this. Let's say you've got to go to Dallas anyway to go see your mom or maybe your visit your brother or sister. But come to find out you have a client there or a vendor and if you're in Dallas to go have a meeting with them and have a legitimate business purpose, you could be writing off the entire trip to go have that business meeting and while you're there, stop it and see mom or brother or sister. And that's legitimate. If we don't get too aggressive, we need to make sure we have a business purpose for the trip. But if you can squeeze in a little personal time, perfect.