Some of your moving expenses may qualify for deduction as an adjustment to income. It can be done in case you move coincides closely with the start of a new job or a job transfer.

Generally, deductible expenses are:

• Required lodging (but not meals) on a way to your new home.
  
  
• Cost of moving household goods and personal belongings.
  
  
• Storage of your household goods (up to 30 days).

Of course, not all moves are deductible. In order to deduct your moving expenses, you have to meet two tests: 

Time test:
You must begin working as a full-time employee within 13 weeks of your move, and you must work at least 39 weeks during the 12 months after your move. And it doesn’t matter whether you were transferred by your employer or you took a brand new job.

Your move doesn’t even have to be “work-related,” as long as you have a full-time job in the new location.

Distance:
To meet this test, your new job has to be at least 50 miles further from your old home than your old job was. If you didn’t have a job before the move, your new job has to be at least 50 miles from your old home.

Other important criteria that must be met are:

• Your move has to make your commute shorter than it was prior to your move. In other words, the IRS won’t allow you to deduct your move if you move further away.
  
  
• Your move must be closely related to the start of your new job. Generally, this means you have to incur and pay your moving expenses within a year of starting the job, unless circumstances prevented you from moving earlier.
  
  
• For most taxpayers, expenses are deductible in the year they were paid, regardless of when they were incurred.
  
  
• You cannot deduct a reimbursed expense, unless the reimbursement has been counted in your wages.
  
  
• If you are self-employed in the new location, you must work at least 78 weeks during the first 24 months.
  
  
• If you are married and are filing a joint return, only one spouse must meet the time test. You cannot, however, add the weeks your spouse worked to those you worked to satisfy the test. In general, you do not have to meet the time test if:
  
  
  • You are in the armed forces on active duty and your move was due to a permanent change of station, or
    
    
  • Your job at the new location ends because of death, disability, a transfer for your employer's benefit, or a layoff other than for willful misconduct; or
    
    
  • You moved from outside of the United States to the United States because you retired, or you are the surviving spouse or dependent of a person who died while living and working outside the United States, and your move begins within 6 months of that person's death.
    

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