Trade Shows, Conventions and Conferences: What You Can Deduct

Last reviewed: October 2026. Rules shown are federal rules for 2025 and 2026 returns.

Whether it's a weekend anime convention, a regional home show or a national industry expo, the tax rules are the same. This page walks through every cost that goes into a show, from the shipping crate to the client dinner. Start with the checklist below to see only the parts that apply to you.

Quick guide: what's deductible?

Booth costs

Booth space, registration, exhibitor badges, electrical hookups, Wi-Fi, carpet rental, lead-scanner rental, cleaning and marketing materials are ordinary business expenses. Deduct them in the year you pay them.

The booth itself. A pop-up display, banner stand or booth you'll use at show after show is equipment. Equipment is normally written off over several years, but there are two shortcuts that usually let you deduct it all in year one:

• The $2,500 rule: if each item or invoice is $2,500 or less, most small businesses can simply expense it (the "de minimis safe harbor," elected on your return each year).
• Bonus depreciation or Section 179: for a bigger custom booth, these let you deduct the full cost the year you start using it. 100% bonus depreciation is back for property bought after January 19, 2025.

Whether writing it all off at once is the smart move depends on your income that year. See IRS Publication 946 or our depreciation page.

Shipping, drayage and storage

Freight to the show, "drayage" (the convention center's charge to move your crates from the dock to your booth), return shipping, and storage between shows are all deductible. So are crates, cases and packing supplies. Keep the drayage invoice; those bills are often larger than people expect and easy to lose in the show-closing rush.

Setup labor and tipping

Paying the show's labor crew to build your booth is deductible. Tips are too, whether to the crew, a forklift driver, the bell staff who haul your bins or the shuttle driver. Because cash tips don't come with a receipt, write down the date, the amount, who you tipped and why, the same day.

Check your exhibitor manual first. Some convention centers don't allow tipping union labor at all.

Travel: airfare, hotel and getting around

Travel counts for tax purposes when you're away from home overnight (or long enough that you need sleep or rest) for business. When it does, you can deduct:

• Airfare, train or bus fare, or driving (72.5 cents a mile for 2026, 70 cents for 2025, or your actual costs). See our mileage calculator.
• Hotel or rental for business nights.
• Rental cars, rideshares, taxis, parking and tolls.
• Baggage fees, dry cleaning and business calls.
• 50% of your own meals.

Local shows are different. If you drive to a show in your own area and sleep at home, you can deduct mileage and parking, but not your own lunch.

Source: IRS Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses.

Per diem: skip saving every meal receipt

Instead of tracking every meal, you can use the federal daily meal rate (called M&IE) for the city you're in. On the first and last days of a trip you use 75% of the rate. Self-employed people can use per diem for meals only; for the hotel, you need the real receipt. Meals figured this way are still 50% deductible.

Look up rates by city on the GSA per diem site. Employers can also use per diem to reimburse employees for lodging and meals.

Adding vacation days to a show

Tacking a few beach days onto a convention in San Diego? Here's how it works for trips inside the U.S.:

• If the trip is mainly for business, your airfare is fully deductible. Hotel and meals for the vacation days are not.
• If the trip is mainly a vacation, the airfare isn't deductible. You can still deduct the show itself and your business-day costs while you're there.
• Weekends or holidays that fall between business days, when it isn't practical to go home, usually still count as business days.

Family along for the trip? Their costs usually aren't deductible, unless they work for your business and are there for a real business reason. If a hotel room costs the same for one or two, the whole room is still deductible.

Shows outside the U.S. and conferences on cruise ships have stricter rules. Cruise ship meetings are capped at $2,000 a year and require a U.S.-flagged ship with U.S. ports of call. Ask us before you book.

Meals: client dinner, booth bar or team dinner?

This is where most event deductions go wrong. The same plate of food can be 0%, 50% or 100% deductible depending on who eats it and why.

So which is better, a client dinner or a booth bar? For taxes, a booth bar open to everyone can be fully deductible while an invite-only client dinner is half-deductible. But the deduction should never drive the decision. Pick what wins you business, then record it the right way. If you serve alcohol at the booth, check the venue's rules and its required caterer first.

A note for 2026: starting with 2026, meals a company provides for its own convenience, like an employee cafeteria, became nondeductible. Meals while traveling and client meals are not affected. Source: IRS Publication 463 (meals and the 50% limit).

Swag, giveaways and gifts

• Swag with your logo handed out to everyone (pens, stickers, tote bags, lanyards, buttons) is advertising and fully deductible.
• Gifts to a specific person are limited to $25 per person per year. Engraving, wrapping and shipping don't count toward the $25. Items costing $4 or less with your name permanently printed on them, handed out widely, don't count either.
• Show tickets you give a client are treated as entertainment, not a gift, and generally aren't deductible.
• Gift cards to employees are taxable wages and belong on payroll, even small ones.
• Prize drawings at your booth are a deductible marketing cost. A large prize may need to be reported on a Form 1099 to the winner.

Source: IRS Publication 463, chapter 3 (Gifts).

Local help, models, cosplayers and crew

If you hire people at the show who aren't your employees (booth models, cosplayers, demonstrators, artists, photographers), get a Form W-9 from each one before you pay them. For payments made in 2026 and later, if you pay someone $2,000 or more in the year, send them a Form 1099-NEC by January 31. (The threshold was $600 for 2025 payments.) See About Form 1099-NEC.

If you control how, when and where they work, they may be employees instead. See Hiring your first employee.

Bringing employees

Reimburse your team through an accountable plan: they turn in receipts within a reasonable time (usually 60 days) and return any extra advance. Do that and the reimbursement isn't taxable to them, and the business deducts it. Pay them a flat "trip bonus" with no receipts and it's taxable wages instead.

If you're an employee who attends shows

If your employer sends you to a show and doesn't reimburse you, you generally can't deduct those costs on your own federal return. That deduction for employees is gone for good. Ask your employer about reimbursement under an accountable plan instead. (Some exceptions apply, like Armed Forces reservists and certain performing artists.)

Out-of-state shows: sales tax and state income tax

Florida has no personal income tax, so Floridians often don't expect a tax bill from another state. Exhibiting elsewhere can create one.

• Sales tax: if you sell products at a show, you usually need to register in that state and collect its sales tax, even for one weekend. Many states offer a temporary or special-event permit. The show's exhibitor packet usually explains how.
• State income tax: money you earn while selling in a state with an income tax may need to be reported on a nonresident return for that state. Some states don't require it below certain amounts; others have no minimum. Because Florida has no income tax to credit it against, anything you owe there is a real added cost, so price it into the show budget.
• Local licenses: some cities and counties require a temporary business license or vendor permit.
• Selling at a show in Florida? You need to be registered with the Florida Department of Revenue as a sales tax dealer, and collect the 6% state sales tax plus the county surtax. See Florida sales and use tax and Does Florida have a state income tax?

Rules vary a lot from state to state. Before your first season of out-of-state shows, it's worth a short call to map out which states will want a return.

Going to a conference to learn

If you own a business and go to a conference to learn or network in your own field, the registration fee, travel and 50% of your meals are deductible. The conference has to relate to the business you have now. A seminar to start a brand-new line of work generally doesn't count yet. Keep the agenda or schedule with your receipts.

Hosting your own event

A customer appreciation night, a free seminar, an open house or a product launch party is a marketing cost. How much you can deduct depends on who's invited:

• Venue rental, invitations, ads, signs and A/V: 100% deductible.
• Open to the public (anyone can walk in or sign up): the food and drinks are usually 100% deductible as advertising.
• Invite-only for clients or prospects: food and drinks are generally 50%. Entertainment, like a band, a DJ, a comedian or a private suite, is 0%. Ask the caterer and the venue to list food and drinks separately on the bill, or you can lose the meal deduction too.
• Employees only (a holiday party or team celebration for everyone): 100%.
• Charging admission? Ticket sales are income, and in Florida admissions are subject to sales tax.

Mixed guest lists (employees, clients and the public at one event) get complicated. Keep the invitation list with the receipts so we can sort it out at tax time.

If you run events as a business

Event companies have a few extra issues on top of everything above:

• Admission tickets: Florida charges sales tax on admissions, and many other states do too. Know each host state's rules before tickets go on sale.
• Vendor booth fees and sponsorships: both are business income. Some states charge sales tax on booth space; check each one.
• Guests and talent: paying U.S. guests, panelists or artists $2,000 or more in a year means a Form 1099-NEC. Paying a foreign guest (a voice actor or artist flying in from Japan, for example) for appearing in the U.S. usually means withholding 30% federal tax and filing Form 1042-S, unless a tax treaty applies and the right form is on file. See IRS Publication 515.
• Hotel room blocks: attrition and cancellation fees are deductible business costs.

Records that hold up

For each expense, keep the amount, date, place, business reason and, for meals, who was there. You need a receipt for any expense of $75 or more and for all hotel stays, whatever the amount. A photo on your phone is fine. Keep records at least three years after you file; see How long to keep tax records.

More for business owners

• Starting a business in Florida
• Do I have to pay quarterly estimated taxes?
• Hiring your first employee
• Should I elect S corporation status?
• Mileage deduction calculator

Back to the Business Owner Center.