If you’re like me, it’s hard to get away from filming when on vacation, and as Jen Moon has encouraged in past posts, you’ve got to have your down time.

But did you know that there are tax advantages in mixing work and pleasure?

Working on Vacation

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed tax accountant, so I encourage you to meet with yours to find out how you can write off a portion of your travel, meals, and other expenses.

According to this article and this article, as long as the majority of the trip is primarily business, if you spend a few days vacationing as well, then you can still write off the travel (but not the expenses of the non-business days).  For example, if you attend IN[FOCUS] 2011 in New Orleans (wink wink) for 4 days and build in your yearly vacation for another 3 days, then you still get to write off your travel expenses.

The ultimate work-cation would be like my trip to Panama shooting for Lonely Planet.  If you do some pre-planning and find businesses or organizations that need video, or if you are building your own stock footage library (for sale), or if you need B-roll for a documentary you are creating, then you can spend your days working (and really enjoying the scenery) and your nights relaxing knowing that you can write off a goodly portion of it.

My best advice – save all your receipts from a vacation and document how you spend your time.  Present this info to your tax professional and see what you can write off.  Imagine!

Relaxing on Vacation

On the other hand, we work enough, and we need to be able to separate work from rest and recreation.  If you’ve got your “play days” and “work days abroad” laid out, then stick to that plan.  With facebook and personal blogs, I find the pressure to turn vacation into an all out film fest unnecessarily.

You understand.

For years I felt pressure to capture my travel time as I would a paying gig.  Looking back, I do have some great footage, but I also know I didn’t always take the opportunity to just live in the moment. People always tell me when I’m on vacation, “Meg! Live it! Don’t film it!”

I want to travel light, but also to give myself the opportunity to capture B-roll footage that can be used in a paying project if I see something on the fly.

My solution has been my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. I’ve trekked this around Patagonia on multi-day overnights, floated around the coast of Panama, shussed down the Austrian Alps, all while barely feeling the presense of the camera in my pocket. It’s great because it shoots RAW and HD 1280 x 720. It’s there when I can’t resist capturing the moment, and it’s tucked away when I want to just sit with my parents and friends and enjoy their presence.

Enjoy your vacation however you so choose, and on the days you choose to work, make it feel like the vacation is  working for you!

:-)  Meg

Matt Ebenezer here from Shadowplay Photography and Video in Australia.

Here’s a quick chat about something that is important to the successful running of a business – estimating your business costs for the year.

Do you know how much your business will cost you this year?  It’s a simple exercise, yet easily avoidable.  To help you get started in identifying your expenses and determining how much you will spend a year, take a look at this list of potential expenses.

Just a small piece of encouragement to help you run your business better.