Tax Publications for Individual Taxpayers General Guides 1 Your Rights as a Taxpayer 17 Your Federal Income Tax (For 334 Tax Guide for Small Business (For Individuals Who Use Schedule C or C-EZ) 509 Tax Calendars for 2004 553 Highlights of 2003 Tax Changes 910 Guide to Free Tax Services Specialized Publications 3 Armed Forces' Tax Guide 54 Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and 225 Farmer's Tax Guide 378 Fuel Tax Credits and Refunds 463 Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses 501 Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information 502 Medical and Dental Expenses (Including the Health Insurance Credit) 503 Child and Dependent Care Expenses 504 Divorced or Separated Individuals 505 Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax 514 Foreign Tax Credit for Individuals 516 U.S. Government Civilian Employees Stationed Abroad 517 Social Security and Other Information for Members of the Clergy and Religious Workers 519 U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens 521 Moving Expenses 523 Selling Your Home 524 Credit for the Elderly or the Disabled 526 Charitable Contributions 529 Miscellaneous Deductions 530 Tax Information for First-Time 531 Reporting Tip Income Commonly Used Tax Forms Form Number and Title See How To Get Tax Help for a variety of ways to get publications, including by computer, phone, and mail. 972 571 Tax-Sheltered Annuity Plans (403(b) Plans) 575 1542 1544 584 Pension and Annuity Income Casualty, Disaster, and Theft Loss Workbook (Personal-Use Property) 587 Business Use of Your Home (Including Use by Day-Care Providers) 590 Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) 593 Tax Highlights for U.S. Citizens and Residents Going Abroad 594 What You Should Know About the IRS Collection Process 595 Tax Highlights for Commercial Fishermen 596 Earned Income Credit (EIC) Tax Guide to U.S. Civil Service 901 U.S. Tax Treaties 907 Tax Highlights for Persons with Disabilities Child Tax Credit (For Individuals Sent 1546 The Taxpayer Advocate Service Spanish Language Publications 594SP Comprendiendo el Proceso de Cobro 596SP Crédito por Ingreso del Trabajo 850 English-Spanish Glossary of Words and Phrases Used in Publications Issued by the Internal Revenue Service 1544SP Informe de Pagos en Efectivo en Exceso de $10,000 (Recibidos en una Ocupación o Negocio) See How To Get Tax Help for a variety of ways to get forms, including by computer, fax, phone, and mail. For fax orders only, use the catalog number when ordering. Catalog Number National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Call 1-800-THE-LOST Proud Partners With Internal Revenue Service (1-800-843-5678) www.missingkids.com NATIONAL MISSING & CHILDREN Important Change Standard mileage rate. The standard mileage rate for moving expenses has been decreased from 13 cents to 12 cents a mile. See Travel by car under Deductible Moving Expenses. Important Reminders Change of address. If you change your mailing address, be sure to notify the IRS using Form 8822, Change of Address. Mail it to the Internal Revenue Service Center for your old address. Addresses for the service centers are on the back of the form. Photographs of missing children. The Internal Revenue Service is a proud partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Photographs of missing children selected by the Center may appear in this publication on pages that would otherwise be blank. You can help bring these children home by looking at the photographs and calling 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) if you recognize a child. Introduction This publication explains the deduction of certain expenses of moving to a new home because you changed job locations or started a new job. It includes the following topics. • Who can deduct moving expenses. • What moving expenses are deductible. • What moving expenses are not deductible. • How a reimbursement affects your moving expense deduction. • How and when to report moving expenses. • Special rules for members of the Armed Forces. An example, including a filled-in Form 3903, Moving Expenses, is shown near the end of the publication. You may be able to deduct moving expenses whether you are self-employed or an employee. Your expenses generally must be related to starting work at your new job location. However, certain retirees and survivors may qualify to claim the deduction even if they are not starting work at a new job location. See Who Can Deduct Moving Expenses. Comments and suggestions. We welcome your comments about this publication and your suggestions for future editions. See How To Get Tax Help, near the end of this publication, for information about getting the publication and the forms listed. Who Can Deduct You can deduct your moving expenses if you meet all three 1) Your move is closely related to the start of work. 2) You meet the distance test. 3) You meet the time test. After you have read these rules, you may want to use Retirees, survivors, and Armed Forces members. Dif- Related to Start of Work Your move must be closely related, both in time and in place, to the start of work at your new job location. Closely related in time. You can generally consider moving expenses incurred within 1 year from the date you first You can e-mail us at *taxforms@irs.gov. Please put reported to work at the new location as closely related in "Publications Comment" on the subject line. time to the start of work. It is not necessary that you arrange to work before moving to a new location, as long as you actually do go to work.. If you do not move within 1 year of the date you begin work, you ordinarily cannot deduct the expenses unless you can show that circumstances existed that prevented the move within that time. Example. Your family moved more than a year after you started work at a new location. You delayed the move for 18 months to allow your child to complete high school. You can deduct your moving expenses. Closely related in place. You can generally consider your move closely related in place to the start of work if the distance from your new home to the new job location is not more than the distance from your former home to the new job location. If your move does not meet this requirement, you may still be able to deduct moving expenses if you can show that: 1) You are required to live at your new home as a condition of your employment, or 2) You will spend less time or money commuting from your new home to your new job location. Home defined. Your home means your main home (residence). It can be a house, apartment, condominium, houseboat, house trailer, or similar dwelling. It does not include other homes owned or kept up by you or members of your family. It also does not include a seasonal home, such as a summer beach cottage. Your former home means your home before you left for your new job location. Your new home means your home within the area of your new job location. Retirees or survivors. You may be able to deduct the expenses of moving to the United States or its possessions even if the move is not related to the start of work at a new job location. You must have worked outside the United States or be a survivor of someone who did. See Retirees or Survivors Who Move to the United States, later. Distance Test Your move will meet the distance test if your new main job location is at least 50 miles farther from your former home than your old main job location was from your former home. For example, if your old main job location was 3 miles from your former home, your new main job location must be at least 53 miles from that former home. The distance between a job location and your home is the shortest of the more commonly traveled routes between them. The distance test considers only the location of your former home. It does not take into account the location of your new home. See Figure A, below. Example. You moved to a new home less than 50 miles from your former home because you changed main job locations. Your old main job location was 3 miles from your former home. Your new main job location is 60 miles from Figure A. Illustration of Distance Test that home. Because your new main job location is 57 miles farther from your former home than the distance from your former home to your old main job location, you meet the distance test. First job or return to full-time work. 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. Armed Forces. 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. Main job location. 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. Union members. 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. More than one job. 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: • The total time you spend at each place, |