Deductible travel expense

[Bird Legs]

Client, self employed, Sched. C, has office in home, located in Tx. Client is thinking of
expanding business to Mexico. He is thinking that he will spend about 4 months of the year in Mexico. He is thinking of buying an office bldg. and making one room a bedroom
for sleeping and the rest for a second office.
Question: Would the travel from the home office to the 2nd office be deductible?He would sometimes drive and sometimes fly.
What about meals? Personal and or customers?
Any comments appreciated.

[Bees Knees]

Travel expenses for lodging, meals, etc. are deductible if the taxpayer is traveling away from his/her tax home, and the work assignment or job away from the tax home is temporary. TTB, page 8-11 discusses this, and says in order for the work assignment in a single location to be temporary, the assignment cannot be expected to last more than 1 year.

Your situation describes it as permanent, therefore, none of the travel expenses for lodging, food, etc. would be deductible.

As to job to job mileage, traveling from a home office to another work location would be deductible if work is performed in both locations during the same day. Commuting to a second job is not deductible unless it is done during the same day that you worked at your first job (the home office) (See TTB p. 10-2).

[Bird Legs]

Additional Information

The work performed at both locations are the same. Client is in the business of buying & selling oil field equipment. He would be travelling to Mexico to meet with prospective buyers and manufacturers. With some paper work done at the Mexico office. Most of the work & contacts would be made from the Tx office where he has a full time employee.
The office bldg. in Mexico would serve not only as an office while he was there but also as
a place to sleep. Saving on Hotel bills.
Do not know if this makes a difference or not but wanted to clarify that client is not operating 2 separate businesses.

[fliszt]

Travel from Texas to Mexico

would seem to me to be "calling on prospective clients" and would then be deductible on sched C. Meals too. However the room would not be an expense since he owns the bldg and income from yourself would not be permitted.
These are my "thoughts".
Larry M

[Bird Legs]

Thanks

to Bee Knees and Larry M for your responses. I need all the help I can get with this one.

[Bees Knees]

Visiting prospective clients is one thing. Commuting to a second permanent work location is another thing. If he buys an office building in Mexico, it is a second permanent work location, regardless of what he does there. Travel expenses are only deductible when it is to a temporary work location, such as to visit prospective customers, or work at a specific location on something that is expected to last less than one year.

[RLymanC]

BEES-Temp Work Location

Wouldn't the fact that he only spends 4 months out of the year make it a temporary work location, or is the time cumulative????

Just a thought.

[Bees Knees]

IRS Pub 463, page 4 under the subheading "Determining temporary or indefinite, it says: "A series of assignments to the same location, all for short periods but that together cover a long period, may be considered an indefinite assignment."