Have you any experience with the behavior of the IRS when taxpayers follow the worksheet in pub 523 and thus skip section B?
The only way ANYONE is going to have any experience with that would be if they or the taxpayer they represented had been audited.....the IRS would never know whether there was a period of non-qualified use otherwise and they're not going to put past returns together to figure it out.
If a taxpayer wants to try and omit the Section B even though it states......Enter the total number of days after 2008 when neither you nor your spouse (or former spouse) used the home as a main residence. This number is your non-use days......and it's clear from the law that the one exception applies only if the non-qualified use is after use as a main home then have at it. That taxpayer should remember that they won't be able to rely on any language in Pub 523 to avoid an assessment if audited.
