Maintaining a tax home..what to do?

[vzcookie]

Hey!

Can someone explain a little more in depth about how they hold down a tax home for collecting stipends when they are on the road? I don't own a place of my own and use my parents address as a tax home. I would like to know what I should do or have in place so I don't get hit with an audit!

Also, on a more individual note, their tax home is north NJ and I might be accepting an offer to work about 35 miles away in NY. Is declaring their home risky?

Thanks!!

[NedRN]

A tax home is an historical residence you maintain. If you are audited, you will need to show strong ties to the area, and receipts for maintenance/rent/taxes et cetera for that residence.

Working away from a legitimate tax home allows you to deduct business expenses related to the extra cost of working away from home. Alternatively, the IRS allows companies to reimburse workers for those expenses based on costs for the work area approved by the General Services Administration, a federal agency. If you are not working away from a legitimate tax home, all compensation, including those reimbursements or stipends are fully taxable as ordinary income.

Thus if you are planning on living at your parent's address, the address you also claim as a tax home, you are not eligible for tax benefits for working away from home, any more than any other staff nurse who is commuting and living at home. It is nothing to do with being "risky" unless you are planning on evading taxes (which frankly, it sounds like you want to do). But if you are audited, the IRS is going to want to know the actual truth and demand evidence supporting it.