J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2013: For Preparing Your 2012 Tax Return

20.10 Deducting Living Costs on Temporary Assignment

A business trip or job assignment away from home (20.6) at a single location may last a few days, weeks, or months. If your assignment is considered temporary, you may deduct travel costs (see below) while there because your tax home has not changed. An assignment is considered temporary by the IRS if you realistically expect it to last for one year or less and it actually does last no more than one year. If an assignment is realistically expected to last more than a year it is considered indefinite, and you cannot deduct your living costs at the area of the assignment because that location becomes your tax home. This is true even if the assignment actually lasts only a year or less. That is, you can be away for a year or less and still be barred from claiming a deduction if at the time you started the assignment you realistically expected it to last for more than a year. Likewise, employment that is initially temporary may become indefinite due to changed circumstances; see the Examples below.

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Planning Reminder

Federal Crime Investigations

Federal employees such as FBI agents and prosecutors who are certified by the Attorney General as traveling on behalf of the federal government in a temporary duty status to investigate, prosecute, or provide support services for the investigation or prosecution of a ...