Can a parked RV be considered a second home where I'm required to live in another state due to residency requirements of a new job I just accepted?

[figment0]

My wife is starting a job with a new employer soon which requires her to live in an adjacent state.  The job is full time and not temporary.  We're considering the new job to be mandatory due to her current employer going out of business.

We are considering purchasing an RV to be parked in an RV park so she can live and work there through the week and return to our base home on weekends.  The title on the RV would be held jointly. 

Our current federal filing status is married filing jointly.  For the purposes of our federal return, can we deduct interest on the RV loan and/or any additional expenses such as lot rental fees, utilities etc. since these expenses are required for her to comply with her new employer's residency requirements?  

Another twist to this is the fact that the state we both currently live and work in has no personal income tax.  However the state my wife will be working in does have personal income tax.  Therefore my wife's future W-2's will show state income tax withheld and we will have to file a state return there, while mine will not since I'm still working and living in the state of our base home.

[SweetieJean]

You didn't ask this, but will your wife's new employer consider this as meeting their residency requirements?  Will she have a driver's license, voter registration, etc in her new state?  Look into that before spending money on a RV.

[SteamTrain · Accepted solution]

1)  Read all of the following couple times......it could be considered a second home for the Mortgage interest deduction, but read the whole article about what facilities it must have in it.  The article deals with mostly as a primary home, but also the "second home" is mentioned in the next-to-last paragraph.

https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-deductions-and-credits-2/home/can-my-boat-or-rv-be-claimed-as-a...

__________

2) No...utilities and rental fees cannot be used...those are just living expenses.

3)  A tax filing for the other state would be required....for her, whether that would be as a as a resident of that state, or as a non-resident depends on the situation and whether it is a job expected to  last more than one year. Sometimes that can be done on a MFJ tax return, and sometimes not.   And that gets far more complicated. IF she can arrange to be in your primary home more than 183 nights during the year, then perhaps filing the other state as a non-resident would work  (Fri Sat, Sun nights in your current home...plus all holidays and all vacations and time off....plus, perhaps some telecommuting if they allow it.)  But if the employer also requires her to have an in-state driver's license (and other proofs of residency), or if she ends up staying in the other state more than 183 nights in the year on a permanent basis...it gets more complicated.