The United States federal government knows that finding a job is difficult in these economic conditions. 9.8% of the U.S. population is currently unemployed, and that number is expected to rise above 10% by the middle of 2010. This is why the U.S. government has created several tax breaks to help the 15 million Americans who are currently out of work.
One of the biggest issues with finding a job is that the process can be very expensive. The costs associated with job hunting while you are employed can be manageable, but can often be too much to handle without a steady income. This is why the U.S. government has declared many of the costs associated with job seeking tax deductible.
What is deductible?
There are many out-of-pocket job hunting costs that the IRS will permit you to deduct on your annual or quarterly tax returns. These can be anything from the fees you pay to unemployment agencies or job placement programs, money spent on classified ads and job counseling. Expenditures can also be deducted for printing and mailing resumes, travelling to and from interviews, and even telephone and internet bills if you use them to contact prospective employers.
What are eligibility requirements?
In order to deduct job-hunting expenses, you only have to meet three criteria.
You first must be looking for a job in the trade or business sector in which you were previously employed. That means if you were previously a carpenter and recently lost a job, you have to be looking for another carpentering job. However, if you were a plumber before you entered the carpenter field, you will still be able to deduct expenses if you’re looking for a new plumbing job. Unfortunately, this means that first time job seekers, such as college graduates, are not eligible for these specific tax deductions.
Secondly, the expenses you plan to deduct cannot make up more than 2% of your annual income.
The third requirement is that your unemployment cannot be long enough to be considered a ‘substantial break’ from work. The IRS is responsible for deciding what constitutes a substantial break, but does not directly state what this means. There are many online tax-planning tools such as Quicken that can help answer these and other tax-related questions.
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carpenter jobs in and around Edmonton?i'm hoping to move to canada the begining of March next year, so want to start job hunting to get more of an idea, i'm hoping some companys might keep my details on record, does anyone know of any construction companys worth applying to.
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Unemployment is a serious issue today. The current U.S. unemployment rate is 9.8% as of this writing. Truly staggering. Unemployment benefits are your right. And nowadays you can even file for unemployment benefits online.
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If your Dad has his own tools, and can afford $50 for some business cards, he might try working as a handyman himself. I understand there are some laws regarding how much a handyman can bid for a job, so he'll have to look into those prior to bidding in your area. The best place to start looking for work might be friends or relatives who need work done. Usually, those relationships can easily brach out to the friend or relative's neighbors and again branch from there.
The one thing I do know is that when a customer finds a good handyman, they do tow things. They use him all of the time and they tell all of their friends. A friend of mine used a handyman on his home and told his neighbor, who told another and before you knew it that same guy worked on almost all of the homes on the same street.
With a little persistance, I think he could walk out the door each day and easily acquire several jobs that would keep him busy and cash in your family's pocket.
If he needs some tools but does not have much cash, there are places like Harbor Friehgt that sell tools pretty inexpensively. They aren't always the best quality, but at least it would be a start and give him something to work with.
There are also organizations like this one:
http://www.handymanconnection.com
That will allow him to display his qualifications and hopefully secure more work through the Internet as well. Who knows? This may be the first step to your Dad going into business for himself and becoming a contractor too. Good luck!