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trade or business. For purposes of section 162(a)(2), a taxpayer
shall not be treated as being temporarily away from home during
any period of employment if such period exceeds 1 year. Sec.
162(a). Section 262(a), however, disallows deductions for
personal, living, or family expenses. There are three criteria
for determining whether travel expenses are deductible: (1) The
expense must be reasonable and necessary; (2) they must be
incurred “while away from home”; and (3) they must be incurred in
pursuit of a trade or business. Commissioner v. Flowers, 326
U.S. 465, 470 (1946).
For income tax purposes, the term “home” in section
162(a)(2) means a taxpayer’s “tax home”; i.e., the taxpayer’s
principal place of employment and not where the taxpayer’s
personal residence is located, if different from the principal
place of employment.8 Mitchell v. Commissioner, 74 T.C. 578, 581
(1980); Daly v. Commissioner, 72 T.C. 190, 195 (1979), affd. 662
F.2d 253 (4th Cir. 1981); Kroll v. Commissioner, 49 T.C. 557,
561-562 (1968). An exception to this rule exists when a taxpayer
accepts employment away from the taxpayer’s personal residence
and such employment is temporary rather than indefinite.
8 The vocational “tax home” concept was first construed by
this Court in Bixler v. Commissioner, 5 B.T.A. 1181, 1184 (1927),
and has been steadfastly upheld by this Court. See, e.g., Horton
v. Commissioner, 86 T.C. 589 (1986); Leamy v. Commissioner, 85
T.C. 798 (1985); Foote v. Commissioner, 67 T.C. 1 (1976); Kroll
v. Commissioner, 49 T.C. 557 (1968).
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