In addition to meeting the distance test (12.4), you must work in the locality of the new job as a full-time employee for at least 39 weeks during the 12-month period immediately following your arrival at the new job location. You do not need to have a job prior to your arrival at the new location. Your family does not have to arrive with you. The 39 weeks of work need not be consecutive or with the same employer. You may change jobs provided you remain in the same general commuting area for 39 weeks. The 39-week test does not apply to employees who become disabled and lose their jobs, or who die.
If you are temporarily absent from work through no fault of your own, due to illness, strikes, shutouts, layoffs, or natural disasters, your temporary absence counts toward the 39-week requirement as full-time employment.
The 39-week period is also waived if you are transferred from your new job for your employer’s benefit. However, it must be shown that you could have satisfied the 39-week test except for the transfer.
What if you initiate the transfer? The IRS held in a ruling that the 39-week test is not waived if an employee initiates the transfer, even if the employer approves. An individual was not allowed to deduct the costs of moving across the country to take a government position when, within 39 weeks of taking the position, he applied for and took another government job in another area. The IRS disallowed the deduction, although the government reimbursed part of the employee’s moving expenses to the new job post, thereby indicating that it considered the transfer to be in the government’s interest. According to the IRS, the waiver of the 39-week test applies to transfers initiated by employers, not by employees.
On a joint return, either spouse may meet the time test. But the work time of one spouse may not be added to the time of the other spouse.
18.116.60.158