incurred in pursuit of income (profit)

16:25 Dec 14, 2017 

if you look hard enough, you can find plenty of "negative connotations" to the "pursuit of happiness", branding it "egotistical selfishness" and other variations of the same theme ...

As far the taxman is concerned [your own choice of "context" Bus/Financial - Finance (general) / taxation, not "theology" or "ethics"] there is absolutely nothing wrong in the "pursuit of profit" - that's what business are supposed to be doing.

14:43 Dec 14, 2017 

I am unpleasantly surprised by the unfriendly attitude and the inability to read and understand the question some colleagues display.

Is the phrase legit? Yes or No would have been enough, plus a note explaining why.

08:18 Dec 14, 2017 

https://www.ourcivilisation.com/public/profit.htm
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corporation-Pathological-Pursuit-Pr...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2011/apr/05/gre...

etc. etc. etc.

02:57 Dec 14, 2017 

Pursuit of profit _seems_ to have some unwanted lateral connotations

Where do you get that idea from?

Unless you are one of those aristocrats who consider all "trades" as beneath them or some silly idealist who considers any money, and any profit as "dirty", there are NO "unwanted lateral connotations" of any kind in "pursuing profit" - FYI that's the whole point of any business!

BTW the ST is strictly speaking not precise enough it should be:

Business expenses are recognised as deductible if they meet a number of criteria; one of them is that they must be incurred in the pursuit of that/the related income (profit)

IOW you can't deduct any expenses you fancy just because they are "incurred in the pursuit of profit ", the business expenses must be related to the activity bringing the income from which they are to be deducted.

16:31 Dec 13, 2017 

I think either version is fine.