26 U.S.C. § 217 — Moving expenses

(a) Deduction allowed: Workers can deduct moving expenses paid or incurred during the tax year in connection with starting work — as an employee or a self-employed person — at a new principal place of work. (b) What counts as "moving expenses": (1) Only the reasonable expenses of (A) moving household goods and personal effects from the old residence to the new one, and (B) traveling (including lodging, but not meals) from the old residence to the new one. (2) For someone other than the taxpayer, these expenses count only if that person had both the old and new residence as their main home and is a member of the taxpayer's household. (c) Conditions for allowance: No deduction unless — (1) the new principal place of work (A) is at least 50 miles farther from the old residence than the old workplace was, or (B) if there was no old workplace, is at least 50 miles from the old residence; and (2) either (A) during the 12 months after arriving in the new area, the taxpayer is a full-time employee there for at least 39 weeks, or (B) during the 24 months after arriving, the taxpayer is a full-time employee or self-employed full-time there for at least 78 weeks, with at least 39 of those weeks in the first 12 months. For the 50-mile test, distance is measured by the shortest of the commonly traveled routes. (d) Rules for the (c)(2) work-time test: (1) That test doesn't apply if the taxpayer can't meet it because of (A) death or disability, or (B) losing their job (other than for willful misconduct) or being transferred, after they'd gotten full-time work where they could reasonably have expected to meet the test. (2) If the taxpayer hasn't met the test by the tax-filing deadline but still might, the taxpayer can still elect to deduct the expenses that year. (3) But if expenses were deducted that way, and the test still isn't met by the end of a later year, an amount equal to those deducted expenses must be included in gross income for that later year. (e) [Repealed.] (f) "Self-employed individual" means someone performing personal services as (1) the sole owner of an unincorporated trade or business, or (2) a partner in a partnership carrying on a trade or business. (g) Armed Forces members: For a member on active duty who moves under military orders for a permanent change of station — (1) the (c) limitations don't apply; (2) moving and storage expenses furnished in kind, or reimbursed, to the member, spouse, or dependents aren't included in gross income and don't have to be reported; and (3) if moving and storage expenses are furnished in kind, or reimbursed, to the member's spouse and dependents for a move to or from a different location than the member's own move, this section applies to that move as if the spouse had started work as an employee at a new principal place of work there, without the (c) limitations. (h) Foreign moves: (1) For a foreign move, moving expenses under (b)(1)(A) also include the reasonable cost of moving goods to and from storage, and storing them for part or all of the time the new workplace remains the taxpayer's principal place of work. (2) "Foreign move" means starting work at a new principal place of work located outside the United States. (3) For this subsection and subsection (i), "United States" includes U.S. possessions. (i) Retirees and decedents who worked abroad: (1) For "qualified retiree moving expenses" or "qualified survivor moving expenses" — (A) this section (other than subsection (h)) applies as if the expenses were incurred in connection with starting work at a new principal place of work inside the United States, and (B) the (c)(2) work-time limitation doesn't apply. (2) "Qualified retiree moving expenses" are expenses of an individual whose former workplace and residence were outside the United States, incurred for a move to a new U.S. residence in connection with bona fide retirement. (3) "Qualified survivor moving expenses" are expenses paid by the spouse or a dependent of a decedent whose workplace was outside the United States at death, for a move that begins within 6 months of the death and goes to a U.S. residence from the former foreign residence the decedent had at death. (j) The Secretary must prescribe regulations necessary to carry out this section. (k) Suspension after 2017: (1) Except for someone covered by subsection (g), this section doesn't apply to any tax year beginning after December 31, 2017. (2) But an employee or new appointee of the intelligence community (as defined in the National Security Act of 1947) who moves because of a required reassignment is treated the same as someone covered by subsection (g) — so the suspension doesn't apply to them either.