re: If I use points for a business trip, can I still deduct the cost from my taxes?

quote:

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No. Points are considered a rebate on the purchase not income. Rebates are not classified as taxable income

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Right answer, wrong reason.

Rebates are considered a reduction of expenses, sort of like a reimbursement. If I pay $100 for something, and get back $10 rebate in cash, I can deduct a total of $90 for the transaction.

You can't deduct the value of points used as the OP asked, because you have already deducted the expense, when you "earned" the points. In other words, when you made that credit card charge that resulted in the 1 percent mileage or cash back or whatever, you really paid for whatever you were buying, plus your future usage of miles or points.

Tomorrow, the IRS could issue regulations assigning some sort of value to miles/points, and taxing the granting of them as income. This would not be hard to do. However, if they did this, they would also need to allow for deduction, in the same value allocation, for use of the points.

They haven't, because:

1) If people use the points for business expenses, it's a wash.

2) If people use the points for personal expenses, it could be a revenue raiser to the feds, but, it's not a huge amount on a per person basis.