When your company says they will pay for moving expenses, does that mean they pack

[HappyGrace]

everything into boxes, etc. for you too? (Of course I mean pay a moving company to do that.)

 

We've only ever moved ourselves, with a U-Haul, and only locally. I think I remember a long time ago though when my mother's company moved her, she didn't have to do a thing-they came and packed every single thing out of the cupboards into boxes and moved it. She just had to get in the car and drive.

 

Are there different degrees of "paying moving expenses"?

 

(Moving may be in our future, but I can't face the thought of the physical packing, etc., on top of the emotional drain. If I knew that aspect would be covered, it would be a load off my mind!)

[Blue Lilac Studio]

Usually, although sometimes they give you a certain amount of money to use and you may decide to do the packing yourself to save money. It is a good chunk of the moving costs.

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

Yes, there are different degrees. I once had a company move me, but there was a cap on the amount they would pay. But, the bonus was that they paid 1st month's rent and utilities. I wouldn't of even thought that could be part of the moving expenses.

[In The Great White North]

You need to ask. Most moving companies will not ensure items that the customer has packed. If that is the case, it might be worth it to have them pack at least the expensive breakables or things that might "go missing."

[BlsdMama]

You'll need to ask. There are a LOT of degrees of "paying" for moving expenses.

 

We just did a company move. They paid for:

The packing company (Paid directly from the company to the moving company and arranged through the company.)

Shipping the vehicles (Same)

Plane tickets for us (On DH's work credit card and then will be paid by the company.)

 

They gave us a lump sum to pay for other things. And, we found it odd, but this was taxed. And that was pretty unexpected.

 

 

But there were a lot of expenses not covered: deposit for rent, car to get from the airport to home, etc.

 

And we also found that rules were different for new hirees vs. current employees. For example, we received a lump sum to help cover expenses. New hirees did not... They were only reimbursed for their expenses. And that was taxed. Now the rest would be tax deductible, but if you don't need the tax deduction you'd be out that amount. So, it's good to get a grasp on this BEFORE accepting the position. Moving was very expensive for us.

[Pip]

We got an excellent moving package. They paid to move up to 18K lbs of items plus 1 car and 1 animal. They also packed, covered our closing costs on both ends and covered the cost of moving us personally (gas or airfare, hotel rooms, food.)

[lynn]

You might want to get a clear understanding on what that will be. We moved once where we were given a lump sum of $$ and had to make all arrangements ourselves and other times it was a full package of packing, shipping, storing, meals, hotels, travel to, closing costs, real estate commissions, 30day perdiem, house hunting trips etc.

[Joyful]

I agree that you should as the employer what moving expenses they would cover. Many times they don't mind the details of what you are paying the movers to do (pack or not pack). But just to be safe, it's always good to clarify.

 

The only time an employer paid for my moving costs, I was relocating across a couple of states. They said that they would reimburse me for my moving expenses up to a certain amount - I just had to send them copies of my receipts. So, when I researched moving companies, I got quotes for moving costs with and without packing. I ended up having them pack my things for me, except for a few boxes that I took in my own car. The movers were very fast and had a system of how they would pack, so it was nice and very efficient.

 

That said, I must qualify that this happened when I was single and had less stuff. :D So, I don't know if it would be affordable for a family to pay movers to pack in this decade.

[athena1277]

Definitely get up-front exactly how much they will pay. When we moved last year, the new company said they would pay to move us. It turned out that what they paid did not fully cover the cost of moving. They also said they would pay for dh some temporary housing since they wanted him to start so soon. That ended up being only about a week. We had to pay for him to live in a hotel for about 6 weeks til he could get into our current home. It was our first time with a move like this and we certainly learned some lessons the hard way.

[Satori]

Yep, you'd have to ask.

 

My first job out of college packed up everything for me, I didn't have to do anything! It was only a short move (1.5 hours) so I didn't have any hotel expenses.

[In The Great White North]

They gave us a lump sum to pay for other things. And, we found it odd, but this was taxed. And that was pretty unexpected.

 

I think the whole cost of moving is added to your income for income tax purposes, except for military.

[Ferdie]

When I worked in accounting the moving expenses varied depending on the level of the person involved. You have to ask and they should give you something in writing.

[Tap]

I agree that it is variable and there are tax implications too. Moving expenses paid for by an employer are taxed similar to income. So, if they pay $15,000 toward your expenses, you could be liable to pay the state/federal taxes on all or part of that amount at the end of the year.

 

If they are paying any costs related to your housing, make sure to get it in writing and get a time line of when the offers expire. My BIL's company paid the first 6mths of rent on a new house and also helped to sell the old house. BUT, they had a 1 year time line on the sale of the old house. They were moving out of an area that wasn't prospering, so the house had been on the market for 2 years without an offer. After 1 year, they had to start paying for both houses again. So, now they have rent on one house, and a mortgage on the other. They can't buy a new house because of the other mortgage and the value of the other house continues to fall.

Edited February 24, 2010 by Tap, tap, tap

[lynn]

As far as moving paid from employer being counted as income and will be taxed you can negotiate that they give you the difference to cover the taxes. Everything is negotiable.

[4mkfam]

In our situation (dh is a teacher), when a school provided moving expenses, it was expected that we get at least two (or three) estimates, submit them to the school, and the school would then inform us as to how much they would reimburse. We made the initial choice of mover (or, in our case, rental truck in one case) and payment for services, they then gave us a check to reimburse once we arrived.

It was generally assumed that we would do our own packing, or if we had the packing done for us, it would be at our expense. A company's policies (as opposed to a private Christian school) may vary.

Edited February 24, 2010 by 4mkfam
spelling error fixed

[HappyGrace]

This was very very helpful and I jotted down lots of notes-thank you so much!

 

Interesting about the taxes. I do not want to learn this stuff the hard way!