Top Tax Deductions for Job Seekers

Employment Agency Fees: While you are unemployed, you can deduct the costs involved with working with employment agencies.

Administrative Expenses: You can deduct the costs involved with printing resumes and business cards for instance.

Job Conference Expenses: Provided that your main intent for attending a career related conference is to hunt for a job, both the conference fees and the travel costs associated with getting to the job conference is a tax deductible expense. Once again, you should keep accurate records of your expenses and how you spent your time.

Travel Expenses: If you took a flight and stayed at a hotel to go to a few job interviews and/or drove two hours to attend an informational interview, these expenses are tax deductible. Along similar lines, meals, toll charges, rental cars are also tax deductible. Of course, you must keep detailed records and receipts if you wish to make these claims.

Career coaching: Career coaches are tax-deductible if you utilize the coach to help you find a specific job. However, if you used a coach to help you deal with stress at the workplace for example, this expenses will not be tax deductible.

Childcare Expenses: Although some tax experts vary on this point, if you keep good records that show that the time your children spent with childcare was directly related to job search activities such as attending a conference or attending an interview, then these expenses are tax deductible.

Other job search related items that can be tax deducted include:

• Passport fees


• Job search website membership fees


• Local and long distance phone job search calls


• Moving expenses when you move to start a new job


• Travel costs to look for new accommodations before you relocate

That said, these deductions must amount to more than two percent of your income and be carefully documented. You also cannot make job search deductions if you are looking for your first job or if you took a long break at the end of your last job – before you started to look for a new job.

All in all, there are many tax deductions that you can take advantage of during your job search – however, you of course should consult with a tax professional to determine that you are maximizing your deductions.

By: Larisa Redins