Moving On? Here’s Proof You CAN Take It With You…

With the job market about as
changeable as the stock market these days, it certainly pays to be
flexible with your career. Time was when an employer would foot at
least part of the cost to get a new employee all moved in. And
while those days may be gone, you still don’t have to bear the full
cost of the moving bill. If you meet a few simple requirements, you
can take at least some of the costs of moving off your next tax
return.

For example, take a look at just when you’ll be moving to your
new position. Generally, if your move is within a year of the start
of your job, you can use your moving expenses to figure your
deduction.

How far you’re moving is another factor to consider. Your move
meets the distance test if your new job’s location is at least 50
miles farther from your former home than your previous job site
was.

And whether you’re working full- or part-time is also important.
The IRS says you have to work full-time for at least 39 weeks
during the first 12 months after you arrive in the general area of
your new job location. If you’re self-employed, that number is at
least 78 weeks during the first 24 months of self-employment at the
new location. If your taxes are due before you’ve satisfied this
requirement, you can still deduct your allowable moving expenses if
you expect to meet the time test in the following years.

If you and your family needed more than a day to drive to your
new hometown, you can consider deducting the lodging expenses for
everyone while moving. You also can deduct transportation expenses:
airfare, vehicle mileage, parking fees and tolls incurred during
the move. But choose wisely: you can only deduct one trip per
person.

In any move, everyone knows that the job of packing, crating and
transporting household possessions can be a real pain. Believe it
or not, so does the IRS. That’s why the cost of all that is
deductible. If you had to store your goods in the course of the
move, you can deduct the cost of that as well, up to 30-days’
worth, anyway. And the money you paid to have your utilities turned
off at your old house, and turned on at the new
one, can also be deducted from your taxes. Just remember to keep
all your receipts.

There is a very broad-based test the IRS uses to judge whether
moving expenses are deductible. You can deduct only those
expenses that are reasonable for the circumstances of your
move. If you move to Florida, for example, don’t expect to deduct
the cost of that deep-sea fishing trip you took the first week you
were there. You won’t be getting any money back from that one.

Other expenses that are not allowed: any part of
the purchase price of your new home, car license tags, a new
driver’s license, the cost of buying your new home or selling your
old one, any lease costs or security deposits.

And if your employer did reimburse you for the cost of the move,
that reimbursement money may have to be included on your tax
return.

To figure out how much you might be able to get back in your
move, download Form 3903, Moving Expenses, from the IRS
website, www.irs.gov.

And one more thing before you head out the door for the last
time: Don’t forget to update your address with the IRS and the
Postal Service. You can use Form 8822 to notify the IRS. After all, you
don’t want all those deductions to get lost in the mail …