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Business travel is hectic. You dash from your flight to grab a taxi, asking the driver to stop for a quick meal on the way. Then it’s to your hotel room where you let the bellman take your bags so you can finish up a quick phone call. You turn the Internet on your room and check your email from your laptop before heading to the local office to check in. It’s only been a couple of hours and already you’re a little frazzled. As a result, you’ve probably forgotten to gather together receipts at all of the little stops you’ve made. After all, who really remembers to ask every taxi driver and bellman for a receipt?

The smart business traveler remembers. All of the traveling that you do counts as business expenses. Even if your company isn’t going to reimburse you for every aspect of the travel, you still get to count it as money spent on business. That means that when it comes time to doing your taxes, you can use those receipts to get some money back. Rather than costing your money, business trips can be a way to see another city at almost no expense.

Get in the habit of asking for a receipt at every single stop on your business trip. Once you’ve develop the habit, it’ll become natural and won’t put any extra crunch in your time budget. Another habit you should acquire is organization of those receipts. Get a little travel organizer that can go with you when you head out on business. When you get home from a trip, make sure that the receipts make sense and go into a file that you can access come tax time.

Tags: Business Travel | taxes