Hello, I've read through a few posts on this site and am still a little unclear on the whole thing.

The situation is this; My company has its HQ in Minnesota, and I work in North Dakota. I get paid a per diem rate while here of 80$ for travel and 35$ for meals per day when I am paying for my own lodging. When the company puts me up in a hotel it drops to 50$ per day.

I don't save receipts for anything unless its something I buy for work use and then get reimbursed for it.

Now, I've been here the whole year of 2012, about 4 months has been in a place I pay for, the rest in a hotel.

I just got my W2 and it has my per diem and wages lumped together. I'm just wondering if this means my per diem is being treated as income and is thus subject to taxation. I was pretty sure some of the guys out here said it was untaxed so I'm not sure what to do about it.

I will be getting in touch with the companies' accounting lady to see what's up as well. They are reviewing the per diem plan this year, apparently they are not sure if they've been doing it all right. Is there anything I should ask her specifically that would help clear this up for me?

Any help appreciated.

Once you exceed a year in one place, the IRS considers the job to NO LONGER be temporary.

That makes the per diem taxable income.