<removeps-groups[at]yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:dca8116c-51f2-495e-90e5-6d2f145320d6[at]p6g2000pre.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

SNIPPED

This is a GREAT example of what happens when either a civilian tries to do
their own return or someone who holds themselves out as a tax pro
overreaches their qualifications - with all due respect to those involved.

There is a BIG difference between your TAX HOME and your place of residence.
They are NOT synonymous, they have very different meanings.

Your residence is where you maintain the home you intend to return to at the
end of the day (week, month, project - whatever).

Your tax home is where you work to make your money.

Take an airline pilot who lives in Atlanta because he loves Atlanta but
whose airline has his base of operations at La Guardia. He maintains a
small apartment near La Guardia where he stays when he has flights close
together. BUT he goes home to Atlanta whenever he has 2 or more days off.
This person has a Georgia residence and a NY tax home.

Hence, not ONLY are none of his living expenses in NY deductible, but for
tax purposes he needs to file a NY tax return and pay tax to NY. He also
has to file a Georgia return and pay tax to Georgia - Georgia should allow
him some credit for the taxes he pays to NY, but likely not for ALL of those
taxes.

When you have a person who has no fixed tax home then they can NEVER have
deductible expenses for traveling away from home, even on a temporary
assignment.

Now the issue is whether this client of your's is actually a transient
worker with no tax home or whether they have a tax home that may also be
their residential home. FWIW, you are NOT going to get a solid answer on
this forum, there are too many things that we'd need to know to answer the
question authoritatively. I'd suggest you retain a local pro, outline the
issues and follow their advice.

Gene E. Utterback, EA, RFC, ABA

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On Mar 12, 6:33 pm, "D. Stussy" <s...[at]bde-arc.ampr.org> wrote:

- quote -

Maybe we don't have all the facts. If he does have a home office, say
for accounting, scheduling, replying to emails, talking on the phone
to clients, then that would be his tax home, and his RV expenses would
be deductible.

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<removeps-groups[at]yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:dca8116c-51f2-495e-90e5-6d2f145320d6[at]p6g2000pre.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

Residence is not the same as "tax home," so it doesn't matter where he has
his residence. He is a TRANSIENT worker, so he is NEVER away from home -
by definition. "If he travelled [to] the movie-shoot sites and took an
airplane and stayed in a hotel, the costs ..." ARE NOT DEDUCTIBLE AT ALL.

There is no deduction here. He has no regular place of employment.

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On Mar 12, 8:39 am, "D. Stussy" <s...[at]bde-arc.ampr.org> wrote:

- quote -

What do you mean by "in lieu of personal living expenses"? He still
has a primary home in Albuquerque, NM. If he travelled the movie-
shoot sites and took an airplane and stayed in a hotel, the costs
would have been deductible as a business expense (or employee business
expense if he is a W2 employee). An RV is probably cheaper and allows
him to haul lots of boxes of equipment. Even the gas he spends on the
RV ought to be deductible.

- quote -

My reply did mention that he has to allocate between personal and
business use, probably by dividing the number of miles driven for each
activity. And the massive depreciation options only apply if business
use is more than 50%.

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<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

<removeps-groups[at]yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:99a694ae-fece-4e33-8b7f-f947f020f636[at]v35g2000pro.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

I have a problem with this. The purchase/use of the RV is in lieu of
personal living expenses, and he is a TRANSIENT worker. Since he is NOT
away from his "tax home," he gets no deduction whatsoever for his personal
expenses. That's why he gets no reimbursement from the employer.
Therefore, I don't see any deductible employee expense here.

The above reply, assuming there were a deductible expense (or
depreciation), failed to allocate for the clearly personal use of the
vacation. The RV would have less than 100% business usage.

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<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

On Mar 11, 11:22 am, "removeps-gro...[at]yahoo.com" <removeps-
gro...[at]yahoo.com> wrote:
- quote -

Sorry, I missed the fact that he is an employee (is in the subject of
your post). In this case, all of the rules about depreciation still
apply, but the deduction is subject to the 2% of AGI rule. That means
only deductions above 2% of your AGI can be deducted. Kind of sucks.
One reports the deduction on Schedule A, along with a form titled
Unreimbursed Employee Expenses.

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<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

On Mar 10, 9:19 pm, Mario...[at]comcast.net wrote:

- quote -

Sounds like he is an independent contractor. So he probably files a
1040 with Schedule C. Is this so?

State law requires that he file a state tax return in every state that
he does business (though there might be reciprocal agreements). I
started a thread about this "State tax issues" recently.

The RV is an asset and has to be depreciated. The official source is
IRS publication 946 at http://www.irs.gov/publications/p946/index.html.

An RV is probably 5 year property.

Federal law has section 179 deductions, which basically allow you to
write off the cost, or most of the cost, in one year. There are
limitations. An important one is that the business use must be more
than 50%.

To determine business use you may divide the business miles by the
total miles (business + commuting + personal miles here, though
commuting miles from your home to your central office, which is
probably your home, is zero).

There is also bonus depreciation, in case the 179 deduction is not
enough or you elect to not use it.

States have their own laws for depreciation. They may not allow
section 179 or bonus or accelerated depreciation, or may allow them in
part.

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<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Hi everyone,
My friend works for a movie company preparing sets like Terminator. He
gets send to different locations for months at a time. His home is in
Albuquerque, NM. He was send to Ruidoso for several month among other
assignments. He does not get reimbursed for things like food or
traveling. He bought a RV and he pulls it to the towns he works in so
he does not have to stay at an hotel. How does he treat the purchase
of the RV which was $31,000; he paid cash for the purchase on his tax
return? Can he take depreciation? He does uses the RV for three weeks
during the year to go to Mexico on vacation.
Like always thank you for all your inputs,
Marion

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<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >