16 February 1993 Income Tax Severed Letter 9233105 - Convention Expenses

Please note that the following document, although believed to be correct at the time of issue, may not represent the current position of the CRA.
Prenez note que ce document, bien qu'exact au moment émis, peut ne pas représenter la position actuelle de l'ARC.

Please note that the following document, although believed to be correct at the time of issue, may not represent the current position of the Department.

923310
XXXXXXXXXX A. Payette
(613) 957-8953

Attention: XXXXXXXXXX

February 16, 1993

Dear Sir:

Re: Convention expenses and subsection 20(10) of the Income
Tax Act (the "Act")

This is in reply to your letter of October 5, 1992 sent to the XXXXXXXXXX District Office which was forwarded to us November 4, 1992 for reply, wherein you requested our opinion on whether the comments made in your letter on Interpretation Bulletin IT-131R2 concerning school administrators, XXXXXXXXXX and the deductibility of convention expenses are correct.

Basically, your understanding is the following:

• 1. School administrators may claim convention expenses with a maximum of 2 per year;
• 2. The claimant must have paid the expenses himself/herself and will not be reimbursed by your Professional Development fund;
• 3. Claims may be recognized for expenses relating to your conferences that take place outside of XXXXXXXXXX(Canada, U.S., Europe) provided the organization which sponsors the conference is a National Association relating to education;
• 4. Claims are not permitted for registration fees since attendance is not required at the conference by employers of school administrators;
• 5. Claims for travel expenses are deductible at 100%;
• 6. Claims for food beverage and entertainment related to the conference are deductible at 80%;
• 7. If food beverage and entertainment are included in the global registration fee, an amount of 50 $ daily may be claimed for such.

Our opinion

Paragraph 1 of IT-131R2, a copy of which is enclosed, sets out the requirements that must be satisfied before convention expenses can be deducted. The preamble of paragraph 1 states that the deduction for convention expenses is allowed to self-employed taxpayers who are carrying on a business or practising a profession and, if such is the case, the amount is deductible in computing income for a taxation year from a business. Paragraph 9 of IT-131R2 states that convention expenses may also be deducted by corporations recognizing that a corporation can "attend" a convention through one or more of its agents or employees.

It should be noted, however, that paragraph 7 of IT-131R2 makes it clear that "employees are not in any case entitled to deduct any of the costs of attending conventions in computing their income." Therefore, school administrators are not entitled to claim convention expenses since they are not self-employed taxpayers.

With respect to the rest of your comments, the enclosed IT- 131R2 should provide you with written details of the information you are looking for.

We trust the foregoing is of assistance.

Yours truly,

Maurice Bisson
for Director
Business and General Division
Rulings Directorate
Legislative and Intergovernmental
Affairs Branch