Publication 521 |
2001 Tax Year |
Deductible Moving Expenses
If you meet the requirements discussed earlier under Who Can
Deduct Moving Expenses, you can deduct the reasonable expenses
of:
- Moving your household goods and personal effects (including
in-transit or foreign-move storage expenses), and
- Traveling (including lodging but not meals) to your new
home.
You cannot deduct any expenses for meals.
Reasonable expenses.
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.
Travel by car.
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:
- Your actual expenses, such as gas and oil for
your car, if you keep an accurate record of each expense, or
- The standard mileage rate
of 12 cents a mile.
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.
Member of your household.
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 you can claim that person as a dependent.
Moves to Locations in the United States
If you meet the requirements under Who Can Deduct Moving
Expenses, earlier, you can deduct allowable expenses for a move
to the area of a new main job location within the United States or its
possessions. Your move may be from one United States location to
another or from a foreign country to the United States.
Household goods and personal effects.
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 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 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.
Example.
Paul Brown is a resident of North Carolina and has been working
there for the last 4 years. Because of the small size of his
apartment, he stored some of his furniture in Georgia with his
parents. Paul got a job in Washington, DC. It cost him $300 to move
his furniture from North Carolina to Washington and $1,100 to move his
furniture from Georgia to Washington. If Paul shipped his furniture in
Georgia from North Carolina (his former home), it would have cost
$600. He can deduct only $600 of the $1,100 he paid. The amount he can
deduct for moving his furniture is $900 ($300 + $600).
You cannot deduct the cost of moving furniture you buy on the way
to your new home.
Travel expenses.
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.
Moves to Locations Outside the United States
To deduct allowable expenses for a move outside the United States,
you must be a United States citizen or resident alien who moves to the
area of a new place of work outside the United States and its
possessions. You must meet the requirements under Who Can Deduct
Moving Expenses, earlier.
Deductible expenses.
If your move is to a location outside the United States and its
possessions, you can deduct the following expenses.
- The cost of moving household goods and personal effects from
your former home to your new home.
- The cost of traveling (including lodging) from your former
home to your new home.
- The cost of moving household goods and personal effects to
and from storage.
- The cost of storing household goods and personal effects
while you are at the new job location.
The first two items were explained earlier under Moves to
Locations in the United States. The last two items are discussed
below.
Moving goods and effects to and from storage.
You can deduct the reasonable expenses of moving your personal
effects to and from storage.
Storage expenses.
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.
Moving expenses allocable to excluded foreign income.
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
exclusions, you cannot deduct the part of your allowable 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.
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