First time home purchase in August 2022 . This house was 25 miles from my work. I was part of a group of layoffs in November 2023. Found a new job with a new company 65 miles from my home and started working Jan 2, 2024. I never applied for unemployment. I am getting tired of the 1 hour 10 min commute, but if partial exclusion is not guaranteed I might deal with this commute till August to sell.
When I read the qualifications for Partial exclusion of gains due to work related move I get confused which bullet point is meant for someone who is laid off.
You took or were transferred to a new job in a work location at least 50 miles farther from the home than your old work location.
I can clearly see I don't meet the first bullet of the work being 50 miles farther than my last job (65-25=40), but IS the first bullet point meant for me if I got laid off? or would the lack of employment in December put me under the second bullet point of:
You had no previous work location and you began a new job at least 50 miles from the home.
Would any amount of severance pay screw this up? Would I have had to actually apply for unemployment to count as "no previous work location". How does the IRS actually define if I had a previous work location?
