Commenter joeking asks about scanning in documents to document home leave expenses for purposes of the tax deduction. I have no personal experience doing this, as I have not met the 2% floor due to staying in a home I own during home leave.

As I see it, there are two questions being asked here. The implied question is, “what’s the best way to save records for tax purposes.” Without question or hesitation, I’m telling you SCAN, SCAN, SCAN. I see no need to get a purpose-built scanner and am happy with my Canon LIDE lightweight scanner. There’s also the super-tiny NeatReceipts. The good news is that the IRS accepts scanned copies [see: Rev. Proc 97-22] for NEARLY ALL RECORDS. Seriously, quit lugging around paper copies of all that junk.

The second question is about actually deducting home leave. I’m no tax professional, and I recommend reading AFSA’s Tax Guide, but here’s my two cents: unless you both own a home and are travelling extensively on your home leave, you might not be deducting much. First, this only works if you’re not using the Standard Deduction. You must itemize using Schedule A to claim business expenses. If you don’t own a home or make large charity donations (outside of CFC), you’re likely of luck. Second, you can only claim yourself, not/not your family. So, if you’re staying in two double hotel rooms, you can only deduct one single-occupancy rate. Finally, you can avoid saving food receipts and driving receipts if the cost is under the IRS rates of per diem and $.485/mi, respectively. Food can only be deducted at 50% of actual expense. If you’re staying with family or friends, you can’t claim those expenses. See IRS Form 2106 for the full info.

Remember, certain other costs can be claimed as business expenses. These include ORE, AFSA membership costs [I'm not a member], some subscriptions, etc. I haven’t run up a tab large enough to deduct over the 2% floor for miscelaneous expenses. That said, it doesn’t hurt to scan something and figure it out at tax time.

Leaving post, I was thinking how nice my five consultation days in DC would be after an 11-month training program: we’d get roughly $400/day for me + 1 EFM after having been down to $50/day for 6 months when the per diem dropped to 25%. NOTE WELL: If you stay in the same city where you had your TDY, your per diem for the consultations remains at the same reduced level (though you do get to add in for EFMs). If you have consultations in other cities AND that’s on your orders, you go back up to 100% for that new city. See this intranet-only Ask Admin answer for details.

One question still remains (and is relevant for folks going on some language immersions): if you leave DC (where you were on TDY) and travel on orders to another city/country and then return to DC to finish your TDY, you might be able to go back up to 100%. I haven’t found any citation to the contrary, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

John said there was no reason I should know this, and he was right, but I was curious enough to look it up. We know that there are funds you can get for moving to a foreign post, but what about transferring back to the US? Well, it’s not so easy. The Home Service Transfer Advance (HSTA) works pretty much like the FTA discussed previously. Instead of that DS-240 for the FTA, you’ll use the DS-250 and its magic to figure your allowances on the SF-1190. While there’s no advance of pay loan, the HSTA can provide you with a lot more money if you need it. Here’s how: Read more on this Article!

I was a local hire and then went to post, where all of my travel vouchers were handled by FSNs. Imagine my horror when I had to navigate the voucher system all by my lonesome upon coming back to FSI for long-term language training. I would have killed to have this info before, so to prevent homicide I give you the following how-to: Read more on this Article!

I thought I was so smart. I’d read several articles on Ask Admin (intranet only) on using my lodging per diem during my 11-month long language training towards the mortgage interest, property tax, and condo fees on a new place I’d buy in DC. The answers seemed pretty clear: so long as I was purchasing the home for the express purpose of residing it I could get reimbursed up to the per diem limit [see Arensburger]. So, I was kinda surprised when the voucher folks denied my first voucher which had some $1500 in mortgage-related costs on it. At first, they withheld the whole $7000-odd reimbursement, saying that charges on a HUD-1 couldn’t be paid out of per diem funds. After taking it up the chain, they funded all but the $1500 that was on the HUD-1. I appealed to the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals. After five months, the judge ruled on my side - you can see all the details here.

The two lessons: 1.) In payroll issues, there’s and administrative appeal to decisions that don’t jibe with the regs; and 2.) buying a house on per diem can save you a good deal of cash. Even though it’s on the sliding scale, I’ve saved over $6,000 in interest payments and my furniture rental and utilities were included while I was still above 25%. I’m not sure on the tax liability yet, but it looks like the interest payments are also available as Schedule A deductions. Huzzah!