[Propriety of Paying Temporary Quarters Subsistence Expenses]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requested a decision regarding the propriety of paying temporary quarters subsistence expenses that were claimed by an IRS employee for the period during which he occupied a house on a rental basis prior to completion of a contract to purchase that house. The employee had been authorized relocation allowances upon his official transfer, including reimbursement for temporary quarters, and he arranged to temporarily rent the house he was in the process of buying. A claim was subsequently submitted for the expenses associated with this rental period. GAO has held that, when transferring employees pay rent for homes they intend to purchase, those homes cease to be temporary quarters; therefore, the employee was not entitled to reimbursement for rent payments or any associated expenses, since his lodging was considered to have been his permanent home. Accordingly, payment of the claim was not authorized.