My husband works on the road. We bought a camper to save money by not having to stay in hotels. Is the camper tax deductible?

[Opus 17]

The loan on a camper/mobile home can be deducted on schedule A as a home mortgage.  Whether it is possible (or more advantageous) to deduct it as a work-related travel expense will depend on several factors.  Is your husband a W-2 employee or self-employed (schedule C)?  What is the nature of the work and travel?  Do you have a "tax home" Generally, your tax home is the area of the city where your main place of work is.  (Depending on your circumstances, you might not have a tax home for this definition.)

[d2ancer6]

He is a w-2 employee and he works on traveling road crews or pipelines. Our house is in Wyoming but it is typical for him to work in 7 or 8 States a year.

[SweetieJean]

Does his employer reimburse him for lodging?

[d2ancer6]

No

[Opus 17]

Your situation is covered in IRS publication 463 which you should read thoroughly.
https://www.irs.gov/uac/About-Publication-463

To summarize: Your husband can deduct travel expenses for temporary assignments away from his "tax home."  If he has no tax home, he can not deduct travel.  It sounds like he probably does have a tax home in WY, but there are several factors to consider, see publication 463.

If he can deduct travel away from his tax home, then he can deduct the cost of transportation, food and lodging.  For transportation, you can not use the standard mileage rate because your vehicle is not a "car" under IRS definition.  You need to use the actual mileage method, which means keeping a diary or other accurate records of all miles driven for personal and work, all gas and repairs.  Then you deduct the percent of work expense based on percentage of work mileage.  On top of that you can deduct tolls and parking fees.  Turbotax will do this for you, but having accurate records is a key requirement for the IRS.

For lodging, he can deduct the actual cost of lodging.  Since you have a camper, your cost of lodging would only be the camper fees you pay at each stop.  You can't deduct the cost of the camper as lodging, because you will be deducting it in two other places.  You will take a deduction for depreciation (wear and tear) in the transportation section, and you can deduct the loan interest as mortgage interest.

For meals, he can deduct 50% of the actual cost of meals, or 50% of the Federal per diem rate for meals.  Publication 463 shows where to find the per diem rate, it is different for different areas of the country, so again keeping accurate records of where you went and how long you stayed in each place is key.  In Turbotax you enter the full amount and the program will calculate the 50%.

Remember that if you travel with him it is important that you can not deduct your meals, and you can not deduct any personal travel or personal expenses, only work-related.  If you take a few days off between jobs to sightsee, you can't include that transportation, food or lodging cost.

Finally, about employer reimbursement:
If he receives a travel stipend that is taxed as part of his pay, he can fully deduct his travel expenses as described above.  If he receives a stipend that is not taxed, he can only deduct travel expenses that are more than the untaxed stipend.  After entering all your expenses for transportation, food and lodging, Turbotax will ask if he received any untaxed reimbursement or stipend.

[BillD2020]

How would this situation change if self-employed and not a W-2 employee?

I used an RV as lodging for a period of 4 months while administering my business at a remote location.  I maintained a tax home and my primary income at another location.  My understanding is that the cost of transporting the RV to the temporary site and the lot rent while there for those months is a legitimate business expense, but how about depreciating the RV itself?   Thanks!

[Opus 17]

First of all, the prior question and answer is completely out of date.  W-2 employees are not allowed to deduct any work related expenses. That deduction was eliminated in the 2018 tax cut. The above question and answer has a 2019 date because that’s when it was transferred to the current support website from a previous website.  

For self-employed, you can deduct the actual cost of your lodging, the actual cost of your transportation, and 50% of your meals, or 50% of the Federal meal per diem; if the travel was for work, was temporary, and was outside of the geographic area of your tax home.

As far as depreciation is concerned, I am pretty sure that if you put property in service for your business, and then take it out of service for your business in less than six months, you can’t deduct any depreciation.  Even if you could take depreciation, you would be placing the property in service at its fair market value at the time, and then taking 1/3 of one year out of 27.5 years as the depreciation, or approximately 1% of its fair market value.  @Hal_Al  can you comment further?

[BillD2020]

Thanks for these updates and for the quick response!

In my case, self employed, working temporarily from my principal residence and tax home, I intend to deduct transport, meals, and the lot rent paid for those months working remotely.   Your comment regarding 'cost of lodging' is where it gets a bit cloudy.  My understanding is that the RV (motorhome) can be considered a 'transport vehicle' or a 'lodging facility'.  Since I move it once and primarily remain in one location four months, I believe it to be more of a lodging facility.  So, what other 'lodging costs' can be included?  The maintenance, cleaning, repairs, insurance, vehicle plates, utilities, etc?   

I see no advantage of classifying the RV as a second home, because I am not paying intereset, nor are the taxes as significant as other expenses. 

I do not intend to consider the section 179 deduction, but want to be sure that depreciation (over 5 years) is the correct approach.  I will keep the RV in service for the business for several years to come, but it will be sometimes stored (not lived in or otherwise used) and other times there have been/will be temporary work locations in other parts of the country.  When idle, the asset is still allowed for depreciation and the costs of storage are accepted expenses.  When reinstated to business use (as a lodging facility), the costs for expedient and direct transportation to the new location are travel expenses and then the situation becomes like the one already discussed.  If I detour for some extra days and visit relatives on the way to my new work location, those days will be excluded.

My reading of IRC 280(f)(4) leads me to understand that the use of the motorhome for overnight business lodging produces business deductions for travel and that this travel is not subject to vacation home rules.

In summary, if I use it in two different locations for 4 months each, while maintaining a primary residence and tax home elsewhere, can I still claim the 5-year depreciation?  Additionally, what is the scope of expenses beyond RV park site rental?

Thanks for your advice!

[ismarttaxes]

This is a topic that I have been trying to understand for quite some time. I've really enjoyed seeing that it is being discussed here for there are little outlines or specific guidance I've been able to find in tax law. With that being said there was a reply to your message that I'm also interested in seeing a response to. I'm not looking to depreciate a camper as I understand it's probably not worth that much paperwork but what I am looking to understand is something aforementioned regarding other expenses.

When camper is put into business use for lodging by a traveling sole proprietor who would otherwise be eligible for other lodging expenses, they do incur maintenance expense, utility expense (propane), sewage maintenance and other minor supply needs- directly necessary for the production of the business that requires overnight travel and lodging. This is not their tax home but in a sense, they are maintaining an office space, and lot rent for that space as well. I've been doing my best to properly allocate - as these should be necessary business expenses on a schedule C. 

I'm leaning toward the lot rent going under overnight travel expense, and the others under supply and office maintenance, but could you clarify for me - When a repair has to be made on this camper so it can continue to be used for the business, what do you think that would be classified as? What about the insurance on it? Office insurance? These ordinary expenses have got to fit in some how. Listing it as a 2nd home and doing a home office deduction makes sense but there is no mortgage or payments on the camper. I've considered even listing it as additional square footage to the main home so office (and replair) percentages can be expensed,  although, I think there's got to be a more defined way to do it.

Any ideas?

Thanks for your time

[AmyC]

Personally, I use the extra lines for other expenses a lot; I think you could put travel expenses all under travel and have a valid reasoning if ever audited. If you want to draw it out, you can use those other expenses lines to separate things how you see fit. In the end, the numbers add up the same, if justified. You need to pick a method and feel comfortable in case you are ever audited.

Do not make it an extension of your house. Insurance is insurance. The lot expenses make sense for travel. I would probably make a line  item for camper repair. The question is how much of the camper is personal use? That needs to go into the equation as well.

@ismarttaxes