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Credit Card Travel Can Be So Rewarding!

July 4, 2018

Can you use your business credit card rewards for personal use? 

I ask because we used a year’s worth of Capital One Spark Business rewards to get to this amazing resort in the Italian Mediterranean and I wanted to run it by my accountant to be sure that the IRS wouldn’t punish me for it. 

It turns out, this is an acceptable use of rewards points! You can use your business credit card rewards for personal travel without taxation or penalty. BUT you cannot claim cash rewards without taxation, nor can you receive a rewards sign-up bonus without taxation. If you do receive these cash rewards, the credit card company will send you a tax statement at the end of the year and you will be required to report and pay taxes on the amount. 

I researched the best travel rewards business credit cards on Bankrate and came up with the Capital One Spark Business card. I love this card! You get double points on purchases and it is extra great for overseas travel because there is no currency exchange fee. Meaning that if you purchase your dinner in Euro, there is no extra charge to convert the Euros to dollars. 

We saved up a year’s worth of points for this trip and we were able to use it for a round-trip plane ticket to Rome for four people (the baby is a free lap infant for another 2 months), a week at the Corso 281 suites in central Rome, and a week at this 5-star resort and spa on the island of Ischia off the coast of Naples. I’ve never done a rewards trip like this and it is oh-so-rewarding! 

Would you call this tax-free travel given that I bought the points with post-tax dollars? I can’t decide. But the rewards are not taxed and had we paid outright cash for these expenses, we would not have reaped these rewards. So in essence, it is tax-free travel! And that is meraviglioso!

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