If you go to work full time for the first time, your place of work must be at least 50 miles from your former home to meet the distance test.

If you go back to full-time work after a substantial period of part-time work or unemployment, your place of work also must be at least 50 miles from your former home.

If you are in the Armed Forces and you moved because of a permanent change of station, you do not have to meet the distance test. See Members of the Armed Forces, later.

Your main job location is usually the place where you spend most of your working time. If there is no one place where you spend most of your working time, your main job location is the place where your work is centered, such as where you report for work or are otherwise required to “base” your work.

If you work for several employers on a short-term basis and you get work under a union hall system (such as a construction or building trades worker), your main job location is the union hall.

If you have more than one job at any time, your main job location depends on the facts in each case. The more important factors to be considered are:

You are considered to have worked full time during any week you are temporarily absent from work because of illness, strikes, lockouts, layoffs, natural disasters, or similar causes. You are also considered to have worked full time during any week you are absent from work for leave or vacation provided for in your work contract or agreement.

If your work is seasonal, you are considered to be working full time during the off-season only if your work contract or agreement covers an off-season period of less than 6 months. For example, a school teacher on a 12-month contract who teaches on a full-time basis for more than 6 months is considered to have worked full time for the entire 12 months.

You are self-employed if you work as the sole owner of an unincorporated business or as a partner in a partnership carrying on a business. You are not considered self-employed if you are semi-retired, are a part-time student, or work only a few hours each week.

You can count only those weeks during which you work full time as a week of work. Whether you work full time during any week depends on what is usual for your type of work in your area. For example, you are a self-employed dentist and maintain office hours 4 days a week. You are considered to perform services full time if maintaining office hours 4 days a week is not unusual for other self-employed dentists in your area.

You are considered to be self-employed on a full-time basis during any week you are temporarily absent from work because of illness, strikes, natural disasters, or similar causes.

If your trade or business is seasonal, the off-season weeks when no work is required or available may be counted as weeks during which you worked full time. The off-season must be less than 6 months and you must work full time before and after the off-season.

If you were both an employee and self-employed, see Table 1 (previous page) for the requirements.

If Justin is unable to satisfy the requirements of the 39-week test during the 12-month period immediately following his arrival in the general location of his new principal place of work, he can satisfy the 78-week test.

For this section of this publication, the term “United States” includes the possessions of the United States.

You can deduct moving expenses for a move to a new home in the United States when you permanently retire. However, both your former main job location and your former home must have been outside the United States.

You are considered permanently retired when you cease gainful full-time employment or self-employment. If, at the time you retire, you intend your retirement to be permanent, you will be considered retired even though you later return to work. Your intention to retire permanently may be determined by:

If you are the spouse or the dependent of a person whose main job location at the time of death was outside the United States, you can deduct moving expenses if the following five requirements are met.

A move begins when one of the following events occurs.

You can deduct only those expenses that are reasonable for the circumstances of your move. For example, the cost of traveling from your former home to your new one should be by the shortest, most direct route available by conventional transportation. If during your trip to your new home, you stop over, or make side trips for sightseeing, the additional expenses for your stopover or side trips are not deductible as moving expenses.

If you use your car to take yourself, members of your household, or your personal effects to your new home, you can figure your expenses by deducting either:

Whether you use actual expenses or the standard mileage rate to figure your expenses, you can deduct parking fees and tolls you pay in moving. You cannot deduct any part of general repairs, general maintenance, insurance, or depreciation for your car.

You can deduct moving expenses you pay for yourself and members of your household. A member of your household is anyone who has both your former and new home as his or her home. It does not include a tenant or employee, unless that person is your dependent.

You can deduct the cost of packing, crating, and transporting your household goods and personal effects and those of the members of your household from your former home to your new home.

If you use your own car to move your things, see Travel by car, earlier.

You can deduct any costs of connecting or disconnecting utilities required because you are moving your household goods, appliances, or personal effects.

You can deduct the cost of shipping your car and your household pets to your new home.

You can deduct the cost of moving your household goods and personal effects from a place other than your former home. Your deduction is limited to the amount it would have cost to move them from your former home.

You can include the cost of storing and insuring household goods and personal effects within any period of 30 consecutive days after the day your things are moved from your former home and before they are delivered to your new home.

You can deduct the cost of transportation and lodging for yourself and members of your household while traveling from your former home to your new home. This includes expenses for the day you arrive.

You can include any lodging expenses you had in the area of your former home within one day after you could no longer live in your former home because your furniture had been moved.

You can deduct expenses for only one trip to your new home for yourself and members of your household. However, all of you do not have to travel together or at the same time. If you use your own car, see Travel by car, earlier.

If your move is to a location outside the United States and its possessions, you can deduct the following expenses.

The first two items were explained earlier under Moves to Locations in the United States. The last two items are discussed below.

You can deduct the reasonable expenses of moving your personal effects to and from storage.

You can deduct the reasonable expenses of storing your household goods and personal effects for all or part of the time the new job location remains your main job location.

If you live and work outside the United States, you may be able to exclude from income part or all of the income you earn in the foreign country. You may also be able to claim a foreign housing exclusion or deduction. If you claim the foreign earned income or foreign housing exclusion, you cannot deduct the part of your moving expenses that relates to the excluded income.

Publication 54, Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad, explains how to figure the part of your moving expenses that relates to excluded income. You can get the publication from most United States Embassies and consulates, or see How To Get Tax Help at the end of this publication.

You cannot take a moving expense deduction and a business expense deduction for the same expenses. You must decide if your expenses are deductible as moving expenses or as business expenses. For example, expenses you have for travel, meals, and lodging while temporarily working at a place away from your regular place of work may be deductible as business expenses if you are considered away from home on business. Generally, your work at a single location is considered temporary if it is realistically expected to last (and does in fact last) for one year or less.

See Publication 463, Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses, for information on deducting your business expenses.

You adequately account for your moving expenses by giving your employer documentary evidence of those expenses, along with a statement of expense, an account book, a diary, or a similar record in which you entered each expense at or near the time you had it. Documentary evidence includes receipts, canceled checks, and bills.

What constitutes a “reasonable period of time” depends on the facts and circumstances of your situation. However, regardless of those facts and circumstances, actions that take place within the time specified in the following list will be treated as taking place within a reasonable period of time.

This includes any amount you are paid (including advances and allowances) that is more than the moving expenses that you adequately accounted for to your employer within a reasonable period of time. See Returning excess reimbursements, next, for information on how to handle these excess amounts.

You must be required to return any excess reimbursement for your moving expenses to the person paying the reimbursement. Excess reimbursement includes any amount for which you did not adequately account within a reasonable period of time. For example, if you received an advance and you did not spend all the money on deductible moving expenses, or you do not have proof of all your expenses, you have an excess reimbursement.

If for all reimbursements you meet the three rules for an accountable plan, your employer should not include any reimbursements of expenses in your income in box 1 of your Form W–2. Instead, your employer should include the reimbursements in box 12 of your Form W–2.

You may be reimbursed by your employer, but you may not meet all three rules for part of your expenses.

If your deductible expenses are reimbursed under an otherwise accountable plan but you do not return, within a reasonable period, any reimbursement of expenses for which you did not adequately account, then only the amount for which you did adequately account is considered as paid under an accountable plan. The remaining expenses are treated as having been reimbursed under a nonaccountable plan (discussed below).

You may be reimbursed by your employer for moving expenses, some of which are deductible expenses and some of which are not deductible. The reimbursements received for the nondeductible expenses are treated as paid under a nonaccountable plan.

Your employer should not include in your wages reimbursements paid under an accountable plan (explained earlier) for moving expenses that you:

These reimbursements are fringe benefits excludable from your income as qualified moving expense reimbursements. Your employer should report these reimbursements in box 12 of Form W–2.

You cannot claim a moving expense deduction for expenses covered by reimbursements excluded from income (see Accountable Plans under Types of Reimbursement Plans, earlier).

If you receive reimbursement this year for moving expenses deducted in an earlier year, and the reimbursement is not included as wages in box 1 of your Form W–2, you must include the reimbursement on line 21 of your Form 1040. Your employer should show the amount of your reimbursement in box 12 of your Form W–2.

Your employer must include in your income any reimbursements made (or treated as made) under a nonaccountable plan, even if they are for deductible moving expenses. See Nonaccountable Plans under Types of Reimbursement Plans, earlier. Your employer must also include in your gross income as wages any reimbursements of, or payments for, nondeductible moving expenses. This includes amounts your employer reimbursed you under an accountable plan (explained earlier) for meals, househunting trips, and real estate expenses. It also includes reimbursements that exceed your deductible expenses and that you do not return to your employer.

If your employer reimburses you for both deductible and nondeductible moving expenses, your employer must determine the amount of the reimbursement that is not taxable and not subject to withholding. Your employer must treat any remaining amount as taxable wages and withhold income tax, social security tax, and Medicare tax.

If the reimbursements or allowances you receive are taxable, the amount of income tax your employer will withhold depends on several factors. It depends in part on whether or not income tax is withheld from your regular wages, on whether or not the reimbursements and allowances are combined with your regular wages, and on any information you have given to your employer on Form W–4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate.

If you must make estimated tax payments, you need to take into account any taxable reimbursements and deductible moving expenses in figuring your estimated tax. For details about estimated tax, see Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax.

Complete the Distance Test Worksheet in the instructions for Form 3903 to see whether you meet the distance test. If so, complete lines 1–3 of the form using your actual expenses (except, if you use your own car, you can figure expenses based on a mileage rate of 12 cents a mile, instead of on actual amounts for gas and oil). Enter on line 4 the total amount of your moving expense reimbursement that was excluded from your wages. This excluded amount should be identified with code P in box 12 of Form W–2.

If line 3 is more than line 4, subtract line 4 from line 3 and enter the result on line 5 and on Form 1040, line 27. This is your moving expense deduction.

If line 3 is equal to or less than line 4, you have no moving expense deduction. Subtract line 3 from line 4 and, if the result is more than zero, include it as income on Form 1040, line 7.

Deduct your moving expenses on line 27 of Form 1040. The amount of moving expenses you can deduct is shown on line 5 of Form 3903.

You cannot deduct moving expenses on Form 1040EZ or Form 1040A.

If you were not reimbursed, deduct your moving expenses either in the year you incurred them or in the year you paid them.

If you are reimbursed for your expenses, you may be able to deduct your expenses either in the year you incurred them or in the year you paid them. If you use the cash method of accounting, you can choose to deduct the expenses in the year you are reimbursed even though you paid the expenses in a different year. See Choosing when to deduct, next.

If you are reimbursed for your expenses in a year after you paid the expenses, you may want to delay taking the deduction until the year you receive the reimbursement. If you do not choose to delay your deduction until the year you are reimbursed and you deduct moving expenses that will be reimbursed, you must include the reimbursement in your income.

If you use the cash method of accounting, which is used by most individuals, you can choose to deduct moving expenses in the year your employer reimburses you if:

You choose to deduct moving expenses in the year you received reimbursement by taking the deduction on your return, or amended return, for that year.

You cannot deduct any moving expenses for which you received a reimbursement that was not included in your income.

Of the $43,018 expenses that Tom incurred, the following items cannot be deducted.

If a member of the Armed Forces dies, is imprisoned, or deserts, a permanent change of station for the spouse or dependent includes a move to:

If the military moves you and your spouse and dependents to or from separate locations, the moves are treated as a single move to your new main job location.

Do not include in income the value of moving and storage services provided by the government because of a permanent change of station. In general, if the total reimbursements or allowances you receive from the government because of the move are more than your actual moving expenses, the government should include the excess in your wages on Form W–2. However, the excess portion of a dislocation allowance, a temporary lodging allowance, a temporary lodging expense, or a move-in housing allowance is not included in income and should not be included in box 1 of Form W–2.

If your reimbursements or allowances are less than your actual moving expenses, do not include the reimbursements or allowances in income. You can deduct the expenses that are more than your reimbursements. See Deductible Moving Expenses, earlier.

Take the following steps.

If the military moves you and your spouse and dependents to or from different locations, treat these moves as a single move.

Do not deduct any expenses for moving services provided by the government.

If you have attempted to deal with an IRS problem unsuccessfully, you should contact your Taxpayer Advocate.

The Taxpayer Advocate independently represents your interests and concerns within the IRS by protecting your rights and resolving problems that have not been fixed through normal channels. While Taxpayer Advocates cannot change the tax law or make a technical tax decision, they can clear up problems that resulted from previous contacts and ensure that your case is given a complete and impartial review.

To contact your Taxpayer Advocate:

For more information, see Publication 1546, The Taxpayer Advocate Service of the IRS.

To find out what services are available, get Publication 910, Guide to Free Tax Services. It contains a list of free tax publications and an index of tax topics. It also describes other free tax information services, including tax education and assistance programs and a list of TeleTax topics.