TAXPROF BLOG - It teaches a lesson about what constitutes travel “away from home” for purposes of the §162 deduction.
The wrinkle in today's case is that the taxpayer was retired and traveled from his home in the Seattle metro area to a house he had inherited, ostensibly to manage the surrounding land for eventual timber sales. The Tax Court decided the travel was deductible. I question whether that's the right outcome here — it seems to me this was just a commute....
Lesson for retirees like Mr. Maki: get a part-time job at Walmart...
Bryan Camp is the George H. Mahon Professor of Law at Texas Tech University School of Law.