Booking Flights
Booking flights for a BTCV service trip is easy with our partners at Lawson Travel. Lawson Travel has worked with BTCV teams for over 10 years and is the only approved travel agency for booking with a BTCV team. This ensures that our teams stay together and that team leaders have a single point of contact for any travel delay issues that may affect the entire team.
1) Email [email protected] and [email protected] to review a flight plan and get an estimate
2) Determine if your flight plan will require a Transit Visa for countries you connect through
4) Determine if you will need to book a hotel for any layovers
5) Confirm with BTCV that your flight plan will arrive and depart with your team
6) Confirm the correct spelling of your name on the itinerary. Your Name Spelled Correctly Is Your Responsiblity.
7) Pay for booking directly to Lawson Travel and email a copy of the "eInvoice" to BTCV
+ Extra fees for seat selection, upgrades, and add-ons apply per airline
+ Travelers may need to add travel days accordingly based on departure/return location
+ Flight selection is based on Airport Dispatch Schedule and Reliability reporting of availible flights, appropriate connections and routes
+ Budget airlines are not an option.
1) Email [email protected] and [email protected] to review a flight plan and get an estimate
2) Determine if your flight plan will require a Transit Visa for countries you connect through
4) Determine if you will need to book a hotel for any layovers
5) Confirm with BTCV that your flight plan will arrive and depart with your team
6) Confirm the correct spelling of your name on the itinerary. Your Name Spelled Correctly Is Your Responsiblity.
7) Pay for booking directly to Lawson Travel and email a copy of the "eInvoice" to BTCV
+ Extra fees for seat selection, upgrades, and add-ons apply per airline
+ Travelers may need to add travel days accordingly based on departure/return location
+ Flight selection is based on Airport Dispatch Schedule and Reliability reporting of availible flights, appropriate connections and routes
+ Budget airlines are not an option.
Are my flights Tax Deductable?
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In short the IRS says "Yes." To keep better records it is important for each volunteer to complete a Project Sign Up Sheet turning one into the BTCV Office and keeping one in your personal file. This form demonstrates the timeline of charitable travel. Keep all receipts realted to your travel with this form on file. |
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From the Internal Revenue Sercvice (IRS) United States of America:
Tax tips you should know if you have charity-related travel expenses
Do you donate your time to charity? If you travel for it, you may be able to lower your taxes. Here are some tax tips that you should know about deducting charity-related travel expenses:
- Qualified Charities — To deduct your costs, you must volunteer for a qualified charity. Most groups must apply to the IRS to become qualified. Churches and governments are generally qualified, and don’t need to apply to the IRS. Ask the group about its status before you donate. You can also use the Select Check tool on IRS.gov to check an exempt organization’s status.
- Out-of-Pocket Expenses — You may be able to deduct some of your costs including travel. They must be necessary while you are away from home. All costs must be:
- unreimbursed,
- directly connected with the services,
- expenses you had only because of the services you gave, and
- not personal, living or family expenses.
- Genuine and Substantial Duty — Your charity work has to be real and substantial throughout the trip. You can’t deduct expenses if you only have nominal duties or don’t have any duties for significant parts of the trip.
- Value of Time or Service — You can’t deduct the value of your time or services that you give to charity. This includes income lost while you serve as an unpaid volunteer for a qualified charity.
- Travel You Can Deduct — The types of expenses that you may be able to deduct include:
- air, rail and bus transportation,
- car expenses,
- lodging costs,
- cost of meals, and
- taxi or other transportation costs between the airport or station and your hotel.
- Travel You Can’t Deduct — Some types of travel don’t qualify for a tax deduction. For example, you can’t deduct your costs if a significant part of the trip involves recreation or vacation.
For more on these rules, see Publication 526, Charitable Contributions. You can get it on IRS.gov/forms at any time.
Article Refrence IRS: www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tipss/oc-tips-for-charity-travel.pdf
