## Facts

- Raymond K. Yeates, a journeyman electrician, was a long-time member of IBEW Local 134 in the Chicago area, where seniority affected access to work.
- In 1975, Raymond and Donna Yeates moved from the Chicago area to Arkansas; work there was sporadic.
- From January 1980 to April 1981, the couple lived in southern California while Raymond worked through local unions.
- In April 1981, they bought a home in Rogers, Arkansas and maintained Arkansas as their legal residence thereafter, but Raymond performed no work in Arkansas after that date.
- In October 1981, Raymond returned to the Chicago area and, through Local 134, worked there repeatedly through 1986, with especially extended periods in 1983–1984.
- During 1983, Raymond worked in the Chicago area for about 10.5 months while his family remained in Arkansas.
- The Yeateses’ joint 1983 return claimed $16,156.25 in employee business expenses for Raymond’s meals, lodging, and transportation in connection with his Chicago-area work.
- The IRS disallowed the deduction; the Tax Court upheld the disallowance, finding the Chicago employment indefinite and treating Chicago as the tax home.

## Issues

1. Whether Raymond Yeates’s Chicago-area employment in 1983 was temporary or indefinite under I.R.C. § 162(a)(2).
2. Whether, given the proper “tax home,” the claimed 1983 meals, lodging, and transportation costs were deductible travel expenses or nondeductible personal expenses.

## Decision

- The Eighth Circuit affirmed the Tax Court.
- The court held that Chicago was Raymond Yeates’s tax home in 1983 because his work there was indefinite rather than temporary.
- The court sustained the disallowance of the claimed § 162(a)(2) deductions and treated the expenses as personal living costs under I.R.C. § 262.
- The court rejected the argument that multiple short assignments for different employers in the same area necessarily establish temporary employment.

## Legal Principles

- For § 162(a)(2), a taxpayer’s “home” generally means the principal place of business or employment, not the personal or family residence.
- Travel expenses are deductible only when incurred “away from home” on temporary work; if employment in a location is indefinite or substantially long-term, that location becomes the tax home.
- Employment is temporary only if termination can be foreseen within a short period; it is indefinite when expected to continue for a substantial or indeterminate period.
- A series of short-term engagements in the same geographic area may be treated as indefinite employment when the overall pattern shows a continuing and expected work base there.
- Personal reasons for maintaining a separate residence (including family residence) do not convert ordinary living costs near the principal place of employment into deductible business travel expenses.

## Conclusion

Because Yeates’s Chicago-area work reflected a continuing, expected employment base rather than a short, time-limited assignment, Chicago was his tax home for 1983 and his meals, lodging, and transportation there were nondeductible personal expenses rather than deductible travel expenses.


Yeates v. Comm’r, 873 F.2d 1159 (8th Cir. 1989)