Maya accepts a new job and moves across the Ottawa region. A friend tells her a move of 40 kilometres makes the moving costs deductible. Before adding the truck rental to her tax file, she checks what the distance test measures.
It compares the old and new homes with the new work location. The distance between the two homes is not the calculation.
Draw two routes to the same workplace
Suppose the old home is 65 kilometres from the new workplace and the new home is 20 kilometres away, using the shortest normal route available to the travelling public. The improvement is 45 kilometres. That clears the distance requirement, but Maya still needs to meet the other eligibility conditions.
She keeps both addresses, the new workplace address, the move date and a record of the routes. The move must be connected with qualifying work and establishing a new home. Moving simply to get a larger apartment does not establish that connection.
Reconcile the employer's contribution
Maya puts the moving company's invoice, travel records and other receipts together. She checks each category against the CRA's eligible-expense list; house-hunting trips and ordinary purchases for decorating the new home do not become moving deductions.
If the employer reimburses some costs, those amounts must be accounted for. The same expense cannot be both reimbursed tax-free and deducted personally.
Compare the claim with income at the new location
An eligible employment move is generally deducted against qualifying income earned at the new work location, not automatically against all income for the year. Eligible expenses exceeding that income can potentially carry forward against qualifying income there in a later year.
That matters for a late-year move. Maya keeps the unused-expense calculation with her records rather than discarding it after filing. She also updates her address; that update and the moving-expense claim are separate tasks.