• Timing - Must be within one year of the date you first reported to the new job location.
• Distance - Must meet the requirement of a 50 mile distance requirement – measured as the additional mileage from your new job location to your former home.
• Time Test - You have to work for at least 39 weeks of the first twelve months at the new job.
• Travel Expenses - To be deducted include lodging during the move, airfare, vehicle mileage, parking, and tolls. Limited to one trip per person.
• Moving expenses - To be deducted include the cost of packing and transporting as well as the costs of disconnecting and connecting utilities. Storage and insurance costs while your property is in transit is also deductible.
• Reimbursements - From employers will most likely have to be included in your tax return. Keep good records of these reimbursements!

• For the deduction, your expenses must relate to a job search in your current occupation. You may not deduct expenses you incur searching for employment in a new occupation.
• You may deduct recruiter agency fees you pay while looking for a job.
• You may deduct costs associated with preparation of a resume’ along with postage.
• Travel costs are a deduction as well. I recommend you keep a mileage log to substantiate the deduction.
• You may not deduct job search expense if there is a substantial break between the end of your last job and the time starting to search for a new one.
• You may not deduct first time job expenses.
• Job search expenses are itemized on Schedule A subject to a limitation of 2% of AGI.

Financial Planning
Here at Robert Palmer & Associates, we are consistently asked why we don't perform financial planning including the sales of financial instruments, stocks, bonds, IRAs, etc. “My last CPA sold me this IRA, mutual fund, or life insurance and I want a firm to do the same when I make a transfer.”  When we have the opportunity to discuss this subject further, we discuss the following points with a client:

• Financial planners who are properly trained cannot pay attention to all the changes in tax laws, along with monitoring the changes in the markets.  Many are only superior in the discussion of one type of product.
• Fees: Something is not right about the amount of payout a planner gets for selling annuity products and life insurance products.  We continuously have offers to just sit in the second position (just use my firm name to sell the product); someone else will do all the work associated and I can make payouts of $20k for life insurance or $50k for this annuity product. Hidden fees are everywhere.
• Throughout the year we witness time and time again, clients that don’t really understand what they have purchased, why they have not heard from their financial advisor since their last purchase and don’t understand what they should be monitoring.  Second, only the understanding of the health savings account rules, the understanding of financial instruments rates very low even though this is the basis for retirement.
• Did you know you can look online to see the background of any financial advisor? After seeing a complete disaster of a client’s account, we decided to perform a background check.   This particular financial advisor was also a tax accountant and the clients tax return was also a disaster.  After about five minutes of searching, we were able to see that the person representing himself as a financial advisor was also a US Airways pilot. Guess he was watching the markets and tax law changes while piloting a 747.