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TaxHomeBase uses an 11-point audit readiness score to evaluate how prepared you are for an IRS review of your tax-free stipends. The score appears in three places: the Dashboard, the Tax Estimate page, and the Export page.

Scoring Criteria

Core Tax Home Criteria (7 points)

#CriterionPasses When
1Rent paidTax home has a non-zero rent amount
2Active assignmentAt least one active assignment exists
3Recent visitLast tax home visit within 30 days
4Voter registrationVoter registration confirmed at tax home
5Driver’s licenseDL state matches tax home state
6Property not rented outTax home property is not rented to tenants
712-month ruleNo location exceeds 12-month cumulative limit

Documentation Criteria (4 points)

#CriterionPasses When
8Tax home costsAt least one cost record exists
9GSA complianceAll assignment stipends within GSA limits
10Expenses trackedAt least one expense recorded
11Mileage loggedAt least one mileage trip recorded

Conditional Auto-Pass

Items that don’t apply to your situation pass automatically:
  • No assignments → criteria 2 and 7 auto-pass
  • No tax home → criteria 1, 3–6 auto-pass
This prevents new users from seeing a failing score before they’ve set anything up.

Where the Score Appears

Dashboard

The Stipend Protection Banner shows “X/11 criteria met” with a status indicator:
  • “Audit ready” — All criteria met
  • “Action needed” — One or more criteria failing

Tax Estimate

The Audit Readiness section (collapsible) shows all 11 criteria with pass/fail indicators and expandable detail.

Export

The Audit Defense Checklist card shows a progress ring with the score and individual checklist items.

How It’s Computed

The score is computed by alertService.js — a pure function that takes user data (tax home, assignments, documents, expenses, mileage, costs, credentials) and returns the score, total, and per-criterion results. The scoring system is backward-compatible: callers passing only the original 4 parameters get a 7/7 score, while callers providing all 7 parameters get the full 11/11.

Improving Your Score

Each failing criterion has a clear fix:
FailingAction
No rentEnter your monthly rent on the Tax Home page
No active assignmentAdd a current assignment
Visit overdueUpdate your last visit date
No voter registrationRegister to vote at your tax home address
DL mismatchUpdate your driver’s license state
Property rented outUn-check “Property rented out” or consider the implications
12-month exceededReview your location duration tracker
No costsRecord tax home maintenance costs
GSA exceededReview stipend amounts with your agency
No expensesLog work-related expenses
No mileageLog work-related mileage trips