Understanding the concept of a tax home is
very important when determining an aircrew taxpayer's
per
diem deduction. A tax home is not
necessarily where the taxpayer lives. The reason it is important in the
per
diem calculation (i.e.
meal expense calculation) is
because a taxpayer is only entitled to deduct
meal expenses and
incidental expenses when traveling away from their tax home. The IRS
defines a taxpayer's tax home as follows:
Quoted from
IRS
Publication 463:
"Generally, your tax home is your regular place of business.....regardless of
where you maintain your family home. It
includes the entire city or general area in which your business or work is
located."
For most flight crewmembers this tends to be your
domicile.
If your domicile changes during the tax year, then generally your tax
home changes with it. For
commuters,
the tax home is often questioned, but with very few exceptions, the commuters'
tax home will
still be their domicile. We worked out some
aviation oriented tax home examples to better help you understand this
concept.
