work related expenses

If Boston had been intended to be a temporary work assignment lasting less than one year and in fact did last less than one year, then you have a good argument for deducting Boston rent as temporary living expenses.

But that's not the case here. It would seem your tax home was Boston, and there was not a valid business reason to travel to TX, so those travel expenses were personal and not deductible.

No work related reason, so no work related deduction.

On a joint tax return, you can deduct either state income tax or state sales tax, not both. Since TX has no state income tax, you will have to choose between sales tax or state income tax deductions.

If you elect to file MFS returns, and your living arrangement requires you to treat the income and deductions as community property, you would split those deductions, so no real advantage to file MFS.

Had there not been any community property state involved, you would have been able to file MFS and one of you could claim state sales tax while the other could claim state income tax, but I suspect TX community property rules would treat such taxes as community property, and that scheme would not work.

Hi Arthur,

thanks for your reply! that was super-helpful!! I understand that for my case Boston is my "tax home" even though my "family home" is in Austin. Also I forgot to add that when I visited Austin, I worked from Austin for the same employer in Boston. I believe that in this case I can claim my round-trip travel expenses from Boston-Austin. The following example (example 2, page 4 in pub

"Example 2. Your family home is in Pitts-burgh, where you work 12 weeks a year. The rest of the year you work for the same employer in Baltimore. In Baltimore, you eat in restaurants and sleep in a rooming house. Your salary is the same whether you are in Pittsburgh or Baltimore. Because you spend most of your working time and earn most of your salary in Baltimore, that city is your tax home. You cannot deduct any expenses you have for meals and lodging there. However, when you return to work in Pittsburgh, you are away from your tax home even though you stay at your family home. You can deduct the cost of your round trip between Baltimore and Pittsburgh. You can also deduct your part of your family?s living expenses for meals and lodging while you are living and working in Pittsburgh."

In parallel to this example, in my case Pitts-burgh === Austin and Baltimore === Boston. I believe that in this case I can claim my round-trip travel expenses from Boston-Austin. Would you folks buy that arguement ;-)

Ah, conveniently found new information!

Your employer is also in Austin and when you travelled to Austin you performed work for that employer. And was that the primary purpose for your travel?

In order to claim unreimbursed employee business expenses, you have to show the employer required you to incur those expenses and that you requested reimbursement, and the employer declined to reimburse you. And the primary purpose of those expenses, which were reasonable, ordinary, and necessary, were for business.

That's sure a lot to show. Start documenting, and be sure you have written documentation for the points mentioned above.

You will have to file form 2106, will reduce such expenses by 2% of AGI (a good reason to consider filing MFS) and if you are anywhere near AMT you know that employee business expenses are lost in AMT land.