Where to Start

You went to TwitchCon. You met with brands, filmed collabs, and posted content the whole time. That is business. The IRS agrees when a trip is ordinary for your work and helpful to it, and when you are traveling away from your tax home for business. This article will help you learn what counts, what does not, and how to keep proof easily.

Start with your Tax Home

Your tax home is your main place of business. For most creators, that is your studio or home where you stream, film, edit, and run the business. Travel becomes deductible when you go away from that place overnight for work. If you bounced to San Diego for TwitchCon and your studio is in Phoenix, you were away from home for business.

What you can Deduct on a Creator Trip

Transportation. Airfare, train, or bus to and from the event are deductible when the primary purpose of the trip is business. Rides to the airport, rides between hotel and venue, parking, tolls, and rental cars used for business all count. If you drive your own car, you can use the IRS standard mileage rate for the year or actual costs. Keep a simple mileage log.

Lodging. Hotel or Airbnb for the business nights. If you add personal days, the perosnal nights won’t count. If it would be unreasonable to go home between business days, lodging can stay deductible for those in-between nights. This is often times called the sandwich rule.

Meals. Meals while traveling for work are 50% deductible. That includes meals alone while you are on the trip, and business meals with collaborators or sponsors. Tips count. Alcohol is fine but still subject to the 50% cap.

Convention costs. Event badges, workshop tickets, paid meetups tied to the show, and shipping of booth or demo gear if you exhibit. TwitchCon, VidCon, and similar industry conferences qualify when they clearly relate to your work.

Incidental stuff. Baggage fees, hotel Wi-Fi, production supplies you buy on the road, dry cleaning or laundry during the trip, and reasonable tips to hotel staff.

The Primary Purpose Test

You can mix business and personal days, but the reason for the trip has to be business. If the main purpose is business, your transportation to and from the city is deductible. If the main purpose is vacation, it is not. For mixed trips, split lodging and meals by day. Business days count when you attend panels, meet brands, record collabs, scout locations, or produce content tied to your channel.

Example. You fly in Friday, attend TwitchCon Friday to Sunday, and chill Monday and Tuesday. Airfare is deductible because the trip’s purpose was business. Hotel is deductible for Friday to Sunday. Monday and Tuesday lodging are personal. Meals are 50% on business days only.

Sponsored Travel and Gifted Perks

If a brand pays for your flight or hotel, you cannot deduct the part they paid. If you cover add-ons out of pocket, those may still be deductible. Track it cleanly. Sponsored travel can also be taxable income depending on the arrangement. Keep the offer email, the invoice, and any platform statements in the same place as your receipts.

What Documentation the IRS Actually Wants

The IRS cares about four things: amount, time and place, business purpose, and business relationship. That’s it. Here is a simple way to cover all four without too much of a hassle:

• Keep receipts for lodging airfare, and any expense over $75.
• Save bank or card statements for the rest.
• Keep a short trip log: dates, city, sessions you attended, people you met, what content you created, and brand conversations.
• Download platform exports that show your tip totals or sales tied to the trip, and screenshots of dashboards that show activity (like live streaming) around the event.

If you drove, keep a mileage note with date, purpose, start and end miles. If you had business meals, write a quick line about who and why.

Special Cases Creators Ask About

Research travel. If you travel to make content about the destination or to scout locations, it can qualify. You need to show it is part of an ongoing business, that the trip directly supports content you publish, and that you did not just go on vacation and post a selfie. Save scripts, shot lists, and the final posts.

Collab trips. Traveling to film with another creator is business when it produces content. Put the channel names and the collab title in your notes. Link the finished video when it publishes.

Family travel. You cannot deduct your partner’s or friend’s costs unless they are a real employee with a real job on the trip. Paying them to “help” without documentation does not work.

Employees vs self-employed. If you are a W-2 employee, unreimbursed travel is generally not deductible under current law. If you are self-employed, report travel on Schedule C and apply the 50% meal limit.

A Clean Workflow You Can Copy

1. Before the trip: make a calendar entry named “TwitchCon business travel,” paste your flight and hotel confirmations, and add your goals for the trip.
2. During the trip: take photos of receipts and drop them into the same folder named by month. Jot a one-line note each day about what you did for the business. Keep screenshots of your schedule or creator meetups.
3. After the trip: export a PDF of your notes, link the videos or posts you published, and tag the expenses in your bookkeeping. If a brand paid part of it, tag their portion separately.

Common Mistakes

• Treating personal days as deductible.
• Deducting 100% of meals. It is capped at 50% on travel days.
• Skipping documentation and trying to rebuilt it months later.
• Forgetting to track rideshares and baggage fees.

Bottom Line

Business travel is one of the most useful deductions creators have. The rules are straightforward. Know your tax home. Make sure the trip has a clear business purpose. Deduct transportation, lodging for business nights, and 50% of meals on business days. Keep simple proof while you travel instead of hunting for it later. Do that and your next TwitchCon or collab trip will help your channel and your tax bill at the same time.

If you want help keeping this organized, Beluga pulls your bookings and card charges into one place, tags the travel costs that likely qualify, and stays on top of what is business versus personal so you are not guessing at tax time.

Keep on Creating!

— The Beluga Team