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Travel Deduction - Temporary Workplace

On December 22, 2017, The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law. The information in this article predates the tax reform legislation and may not apply to tax returns starting in the 2018 tax year. You may wish to speak to your tax advisor about the latest tax law. This publication is provided for your convenience and does not constitute legal advice. This publication is protected by copyright.

Travel Deduction - Temporary Workplace
For purposes of determining whether transportation between work and home is deductible, the IRS states that a temporary workplace is one where employment is expected to last one year or less. The following applies under the IRS definition:
  • Employment is temporary if it is realistically expected to last (and does last) for a year or less.

  • If employment at a location is expected to last for over a year, the employment isn't temporary, regardless of whether it actually exceeds one year.

  • If employment at a location initially is expected to last for one year or less, but later the expectation be for it to exceed a year, the employment is temporary until the date the taxpayer's expectation changes. After that date, it is non-temporary.

Break between temporary assignments - There is no general IRS guidance on how significant a break must be, following a period of temporary employment, for a reassignment to a different work location to be treated as a separate period of work employment that will "restart the clock" on the 1-year limit. The IRS says however, that a break exceeding 1-year is "clearly significant enough" to restart the clock.

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