Help with Employee Business Expenses

[Burke]

I agree with this 100%. And that means that Appelman's scenario of living in SF and travelling to Chicago periodically after he retired, AND presuming there was not a then-current working scenario in SF of whatever sort, his commuting would not have been deductible either. Whether or not the employer chose to reimburse has nothing to do with the tax law. Look at it from a larger view: Congress enacted a special allowance as a legitimate deductible job expense for certain employees who were required to travel away from their regular work area. It was not intended to be applicable to any and all workers who commute to a job. And not for persons who live in one area and regularly work in another. I had a client a few years ago whose company closed their office in this town. He had 2 years to go to retirement, so chose to commute to another location 3 states away for those 2 years because he did not want to move.. None of that expense was deductible. He didn't like it, but that's the way it is.

[Gary2]

Married Couple Had Separate Tax Homes Where Each Spouse Was Employed

(Caution: tangent alert!) Fifteen days a month is three shy of 183. The wife had best be careful lest she be declared a NY resident and be taxed on everything; I assume NY is already taxing her wages.

Hawaii is a bit more generous, requiring 200 days, and even then it's rebuttable.

[David1980]

In summary, based on the fact pattern presented here, the taxpayer in the original post still has no deductions.

(Right?)

[Burke]

The OP never clarified whether this was the clergy's one and only job. It hinges on whether the TP has employment in the clergy field as a regular occupation, and whether the travel is outside the general metropolitan area (it seems as if it is.)

[Gary2]

The OP never clarified whether this was the clergy's one and only job. It hinges on whether the TP has employment in the clergy field as a regular occupation, and whether the travel is outside the general metropolitan area (it seems as if it is.)

Agreed. I have one point to elaborate: On the one hand, the handful of cases that I've read that discuss actually mileage suggest that 80 miles is likely to be enough to be considered outside the work area. On the other hand, it's clearly a fact and circumstances issue, and there are situations in this country where 80 miles would be considered a common commute.

[Gretel]

rfk

...would you please clarify what exactly the circumstances are? No matter, if your are still interested or not?

This is more than an interesting thread for the general always confusing issue but it would be nice to know what the situation is..

[rfk]

Employee Business Expense From Poster

Hi folks,

Dynamic conversations.

This clergy job is done with the state, but I know I said that already. No expenses reimbursed by agreement with the employer.

The taxpayer has a regular job at a school during the week - teacher of sorts.
She is "chaplain" (certain denomination) to a women's prison facility in central CA.

She does this State work because she enjoys helping women with their situation if you will religiously. So she is essentially a chaplain doing part time work (on weekends as needed). Not related to the teaching work she does regularly.

She and I were wondering about the costs that she incurs as being a W-2 employee, what could potentially be deductible for the chaplain work.

My opinion was that the "commuting" expense was not; but thought that any expenses out of pocket for prison oriented work might be - whatever can be "labeled" as oriented towards prison out of pocket expense, not reimbursed, if anything.

Hope the above makes more sense.

rfk

[David1980]

http://www.taxalmanac.org/index.php/Discussion:Employee_Travel_Expenses_for_Second_Job

Discusses a similar set of facts.

[Uncle Sam]

Employee Business Expenses

Would you latecomers to this thread - please go back to the beginning and get the full facts that have been disclosed?

The facts were - the lady commutes to this part-time weekend job from her residence area 80 miles one way, does her duties both days during the weekend and stays in a motel (sometimes 2 nights) three times a month, sometimes eats meals while on duty in the prison, sometimes not. The clergy'/prison job is for the state government unrelated to her full time week job.

The OP's question was - are there any legitimate Employee Form 2106 expenses?

[appelman]

After reading RFK's clarification...

...I am more convinced than ever that she meets the 2 out of 3 test that I quoted earlier, and that facts & circumstances favor deducting travel, meals, and lodging. If she were my client, I would certainly go for it!

[Gary2]

...I am more convinced than ever that she meets the 2 out of 3 test that I quoted earlier, and that facts & circumstances favor deducting travel, meals, and lodging. If she were my client, I would certainly go for it!

I don't even think you can or need to get to that test. She has a regular job, so unless there's other missing info, that regular job would be her tax home. Also, based on what we know so far, this isn't a temporary assignment.

So the remaining questions, for me, are a) can the taxpayer make a case that it's reasonable to stay overnight (or unreasonable to drive back and forth); and b) can the taxpayer and/or the IRS make any other arguments about the work area.

For the overnight stay, I'd want to know how much time the drive takes, what the weekday hours are, and whether there are any other factors that would argue for or against the overnight stay having a business necessity. For the work area question, I'd want to know how far she drives to get to the regular job, whether there's any pattern or practice of teachers or other workers driving further, whether there's any practice of teachers being sent to more distant schools (either permanently or for temporary assignment), etc.

[David1980]

I don't even think you can or need to get to that test. She has a regular job, so unless there's other missing info, that regular job would be her tax home. Also, based on what we know so far, this isn't a temporary assignment.

Yes, once it was established that she had a second job the tax home could be established. Up until that point, we were basically at step 1: Establish the tax home.