Tax home/mileage question....goofy one

[mblatour]

Client lives in Duluth, MN. Client works as RN in Duluth, MN for Job #1 (which is 3 miles from her home). Client earned $32,000 from Job #1 in 2007.

Client has Job #2. This job is in a major metro area (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN), 150+ miles one way, from her home. She earned $17,000 in wages as RN from Job #2.

When she works job #2, she'll drive down there and stay a couple of days at her aunts house while she's working at the hospital as an RN.

What would you consider her tax home to be? The city in which she lives and works at Job #1 (the higher paying job) or the city where she drives to and works Job #2, the lower paying job? I'm looking for any possible allowable mileage here. There are not any deductible miles between Job #1 and Job #2, because she doesn't work them on the same day. So 2nd job mileage does not apply.

FYI: She's worked the RN job in Duluth for many years. She plans on working the #2 job for most of this year, but then will most likely quit later this fall and then up her hours at the #1 (Duluth job).

[mblatour]

more info.....

TTB 10-2: "Second Job: If a taxpayer regularly works at two or more places in one day, whether or not for the same employer, deduct transportation expenses of getting from one work place to another" - this is not the case, but the sentence that follows says this.....

"Do not deduct transportation costs between home and a second job on a day off from the main job" - might be the case.

The second job doesn't fit, "temporary work location" either, because it's just a second job that she decided to take that just happens to be further away than usual.

Any thoughts?

[Gretel]

I think you answered your own question. Since second job is not temporary and she never travels from job#1 to job#2, all her mileage are commuting miles. Sorry.

[gkaiseril]

Length of Second Job

If this second job will last for a year or less, you might be able to treat it like a temporary assignment.

[mblatour]

gkaiseril: I thought about that....

but I think it's too much of a stretch in this case. I'm going to find out if there were ever any days that she may have worked a shift that ended say at 6 a.m., then got in her car and drove to the cities for the other job, and then worked a shift that started at say 11 p.m., the same day. In that case, the 2nd job in same day rule would apply. It may have happened a few times, so its worth looking at, at least.

Thanks!

[Gretel]

If this second job will last for a year or less, you might be able to treat it like a temporary assignment.

I respectfully disagree. It doesn't matter how long a job lasts. It matters if you had the expectation that it will last for less than a year. If you take a permanent job and are laid off after 3 months, this job is not considered temporary.

[gkaiseril]

Yes if this is a permenant second job lasting more than 1 year.

But if this is a short term situation or was planned to be short term , less than 1 year one could consider the situation the same as a temporary assignment. See page 4 of IRS Pub 463, http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p463.pdf#page-4 . Carefully read all the examples as there are special rules when the character of the length of situation changes.