Loan 365

If you travel between jobs in two different cities, you can take deduct the cost of your travel expenses from your taxable income. This includes costs of flights, hotels, taxis and anything else that is necessary for you to be able to satisfy the requirements of your second job away from home. Personal travel and extravagant business travel expenses are not deductible. Workers with two jobs and qualifying travel expenses can use Form 2106 or Form 2106-EZ to claim and calculate their deductions.

Some workers who add a second job do so with a work-from-home opportunity or by opening a small business from home. If one of your jobs requires you to perform work from a home office, you can deduct not only your work expenses but also a portion of your regular household expenses from your taxable income. This type of deduction relies on determining what percentage of your home is for business use. For example, if you have a home office, which is a space where you only perform work duties, occupying 5 percent of your home’s square footage, you can deduct 5 percent of your mortgage payments or rent and utility bills from your taxable income.

The federal child care credit is another source of savings for many parents who work two jobs. It applies if your second job requires you to spend money on child care, such as an in-home babysitter for the hours during which you work an evening shift at a second job. The child care credit is a tax credit rather than an income deduction, which means it reduces the tax you owe directly. As of 2011, the expense limit for figuring a child care credit is $3,000 if you pay for care for one child, and $6,000 if you pay for care for multiple children.

Workers who have two jobs may face other tax issues, some of which are potentially harmful rather than providing savings. For example, if each of your two jobs provides a substantial portion of your income (rather than one job providing most of your income, and the second serving as a smaller supplemental source), you may not have enough estimated tax withheld from your paychecks. This can result in a high tax bill at the end of the year and a possible penalty. When working two jobs, you can ask either employer to withhold additional taxes to prevent this problem.