Travel/Conferences as business expense (at a loss) or un-reimbursed employee expense? I work in IT, and also do some small business consulting on the side.  A couple of times a year I go to conferences, pay for books or online training materials to improve my job skills, and other similar things that easily apply to both my full-time job and my consulting "business". 

My consulting stuff only totals about $1000 a year, so if I were to write these off as business expenses, my Schedule C would show a loss.  However, on my normal income taxes, I generally take the standard deduction, and these expenses wouldn't be enough for me to itemize.

What's the best way to deal with this?  Is there anything negative tax-wise about filing a loss on Schedule C?