Can I claim a tax deduction for attending an engineering conference?

What if the conference is more relevant to my W-2 position than my own business? Does that matter for deduction purposes? And do I need to get any specific documentation beyond receipts?

The relevance to your W-2 position versus your business doesn't matter for deduction purposes - what matters is that you can show a legitimate business purpose for your engineering firm. If the knowledge gained helps maintain or improve skills needed in your business, that's sufficient justification. Beyond receipts, keep the conference agenda/program showing the educational content, notes you took during sessions, and any business cards from networking. Also document how the conference content relates to your engineering business - this creates a stronger case for the deduction if ever questioned.

Does it actually tell you which specific expenses are deductible? Like if I spend money on extending my stay a few days for sightseeing, will it flag that as non-deductible?

Sounds interesting, but I'm skeptical about these AI tax tools. How accurate is it compared to just asking my accountant? I worry about software missing nuances that a human professional would catch.

It does flag specific expenses as potentially non-deductible. In my case, it correctly identified that my extra two days of hotel and meals after the conference weren't business-related and should be separated out as personal expenses. It even suggested how to properly allocate partial expenses. Regarding accuracy versus an accountant, I actually had my accountant review what taxr.ai suggested, and she was impressed with the recommendations. She said it caught all the same things she would have, but saved her time on analysis. It's not replacing professional advice, but it helps organize everything before you see a tax professional.

How does this actually work? Do they have some special connection to the IRS or something? I've been trying to get through to ask about some home office deductions for weeks.

Yeah right, nothing can get you through to the IRS faster. I've been trying for months about a mistake they made on my return. This sounds like a scam to take advantage of desperate taxpayers.

They use a technology that navigates the IRS phone tree and waits on hold for you. When an actual agent picks up, you get a call connecting you directly to that agent. No special connection - they're just using tech to handle the painful waiting process so you don't have to sit on hold for hours. I was skeptical too initially. What convinced me was that you only pay if they actually get you through to an agent. I spent weeks trying to get clarification on business deductions for my situation and was getting nowhere. Within 2 hours of using their service, I was talking to someone who could actually help.

Does this apply to meals too? Like if there's a dinner with a keynote speaker, is that educational or entertainment? It's really hard to figure out where to draw the line.

For meals with educational content like a keynote speaker, those would typically qualify as business meals (50% deductible) as long as business is conducted or discussed. The key is the primary purpose of the meal. For the registration fee allocation, you'd look at the agenda and calculate roughly what percentage of the conference time is spent on legitimate educational activities versus purely social events. For example, if there's a 4-day conference but one full day is just a golf tournament, you might reasonably allocate 75% of the registration as educational and 25% as entertainment.

Which state was this? I'm in California and wondering if I need to worry about this for a conference I attended in Las Vegas.

This happened to me in New York - they don't automatically follow federal business expense deductions and have their own rules about what qualifies. California generally conforms to federal rules for business expenses, but you should double-check since some states like New York, Pennsylvania, and others have their own criteria. The conference location doesn't matter as much as your state of residence and where your business is registered.