Internal Revenue Service
Revenue Ruling

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 Rev. Rul. 68-12

1968-1 C.B. 96

Sec. 162

Sec. 262

IRS Headnote

Rent paid by a Member of Congress for an apartment used as his place of residence within his realigned congressional district is a nondeductible personal, living, or family expense.

Full Text

Rev. Rul. 68-12

Advice has been requested whether rent paid for an apartment by a Member of Congress of the United States in the circumstances described below is a deductible business expense for Federal income tax purposes.

The congressional district which the taxpayer represents was realigned by the legislature of the State, and the city in which he maintained his personal residence was eliminated from such district. Under the State law, a candidate for Congress, in order to compete in the local primary election in that State, must be a resident of the political district which he seeks to represent. Consequently, to qualify under State law the taxpayer moved to an apartment in a city within the newly realigned district. However, for personal reasons he did not sell his former residence.

Section 262 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 provides that no deduction shall be allowed for personal, living, or family expenses, except as otherwise expressly provided. Section 1.262-1(b)(3) of the Income Tax Regulations lists as examples of personal, living, and family expenses those expenses of maintaining a household, including amounts paid for rent.

Section 162(a)(2) of the Code, relating to trade or business expenses, provides that there shall be allowed as a deduction traveling expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year (including amounts expended for meals and lodging other than amounts which are lavish or extravagant under the circumstances) while away from home in the pursuit of a trade or business.

The rent in the instant case is a personal, living, or family expense the deduction of which is specifically denied by section 262 of the Code, except as otherwise expressly provided. Section 162(a)(2) of the Code is not applicable to the expense here involved since section 162(a) of the Code provides, in part, that for purposes of section 162(a)(2), the place of residence of of a Member of Congress within the congressional district which he represents in Congress shall be considered his home. The taxpayer's apartment is his only residence within the congressional district which he represents in Congress and the place of that residence must therefore be considered his `home' for purposes of section 162(a) of the Code.

Accordingly, the rent paid by the taxpayer in the instant case is not a deductible business expense incurred while traveling away from home but rather is a personal, living, or family expense the deduction of which is precluded by section 262 of the Code.

Expenditures for meals by a salesman on trips which did not require him to stop for either sleep or rest. See Ct. D. 1917, page 64.