Interviewing expenses and taxes

[HouseofWool]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but considering there are a BUNCH of us going through it again, I was hoping to get some pearls of wisdom from the BTDT crowd.

DH is in the midst of all of the residency interviews and I am wondering if any of the expenses associated with it are deductible on our taxes. I know that some job search expenses are, and considering this is a paid position, does it qualify?

[HouseofWool]

Re: Interviewing expenses and taxes

I'm not sure that my salary has ever exceeded his tuition, but I want to be prepared when I head to the accountant this year... I am really curious if I need to get on DH about saving receipts. I told him to do so, but I was shredding papers last night and noticed a bunch of receipts in there.

Re: Interviewing expenses and taxes

You might find this topic by searching back through this forum. We deducted DH's interview expenses for the second round -- because he was already working and earning an income from his research fellowship year. I had income that year but for some reason I thought he had to have earned income (and that was the reason we didn't deduct interview expenses the first time????). I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly because this was a while ago. Also, his expenses were split between two calendar years (Dec interviews versus January interviews) and that was a PITA because of the 2% of...something, AGI?...requirement. Look for a comment from Matt, I vaguely remember him saying something about this being one of those "no, they aren't employees, this is education training" or something like that. Sorry this isn't more helpful.

[Vishenka69]

Re: Interviewing expenses and taxes

You can only tax deduct his interview expenses if he files income taxes (or you file together) AND his expenses plus whatever other deductions you can come up with (mortgage interest, etc.) are higher than the standard deduction ($10-11K I believe). Keep all receipts just in case though, you can always trash them later.

DH didn't deduct his expenses because we weren't married then and his parents were claiming him as a dependent. So it wasn't my responsibility back then. Plus, he interviewed locally anyway, so there weren't any hotel or airline expenses.