As the end of the year looms, many people's thoughts are turning to taxes. Those who engage in frequent domestic travel—for instance, as part of their jobs—or who live in more than one state over the course of the year may put themselves at risk of unwelcome attention by Internal Revenue Service auditing teams if they fail to take the necessary tax precautions.

Take mobile time tracking to the next level
Businesspeople who bill for their services are already familiar with the need to track their time for invoicing purposes. As part of their record-keeping efforts, they should also be sure to take note of which states they are in when they carry out each task. Professionals who rely on desktop-based time tracking software may run into trouble when it comes to keeping thorough records when they are traveling and away from their offices, while those who use mobile time and billing solutions are able to easily track how long they spend on each task, as well as where they are when they carry these out.

"Maintaining a clear record of where you were and when can be huge," notes state-to-state residency resource Residency HQ in a recent article for internet-based financial news source Minyanville Media. Residency HQ suggests that those who frequently travel between states, whether for business or pleasure, purchase large desk calendars or utilize electronic calendars in order to easily chronicle their comings and goings. Professionals who already use mobile time invoicing solutions, such as Sage Timeslips eCenter, can sidestep the annoyance of having to manually keep records of their travels by adding a note to each slip they create using the software. This allows them to quickly and conveniently detail where they were when they carried out the activity for which they are billing.

As with billing for time, it is important that traveling businesspeople are specific about why they entered a state—for work, for pleasure, for a working vacation, to visit family, to participate in particular activities, etc.

"There is such a crossover these days between the work/life balance it is sometimes a bit of a blur," notes Residency HQ. "This means avoiding certain behaviors can be key, and knowing which behaviors trigger audits in the states you frequent can be a wise exercise."