If your gigworker on-the-road client wants to claim that her/his tax home is where s/he lives, not works, heed Judge Vasquez.

Today he takes a leaf from The Silhouettes’ 1957 smash hit to admonish Avito M. Vasquez, 2021 T. C. Sum. Op. 32, filed 9/13/21, that if he wants to claim his residence as his tax home between on-the-road gigs as an electrician with a high-voltage TX outfit, he should look for work when he’s laid off by the high-voltagers and goes back home until the next gig. Remember, home may be where the heart is, but a business connection is necessary for it to be your client’s tax home.

“The record does not establish that petitioner had any business connections in the vicinity of [hometown]. While unemployed in the summer of [year at issue], he did not attempt to find work near his residence. As petitioner acknowledged at trial, job opportunities in his field were scarce in and around [hometown]. On the record before us, petitioner’s only tie to [hometown] was familial, which is a personal and not a business connection. We therefore find that petitioner’s choice to maintain a home in [hometown] was for personal rather than business reasons. Accordingly, petitioner was not ‘away from home’ while working [on the road].” 2021 T. C. Sum. Op. 32, at p. 10.

So keep good records, gig roadster, but remember Rick Lewis’ immortal words. When you get on the stand, say as follows: “And when I get the paper, I read it through and through, And my girl never fails to say If there is any work for me, And when I go back to the house I hear the woman’s mouth Preaching and a crying, Tell me that I’m lying ’bout a job, That I never could find.” Just leave out the sha na na na.