I got reimbursed $1200 for interview expenses. Had to provide receipts first. Was hotel, gas, food. Got job and they reported it on W2 as taxable income. Is that Wrong?

[Critter]

It is not wrong ... IF you itemize deductions on the Sch A and IF those expenses were more than 2% of your AGI  THEN you could deduct them as job search expenses. 

[crazyc]

I have been working a long time.  I have never had reimbursed expenses included on my W2.  There is no income. It is an expense reimbursement.  Why would this one employer do that, when over the years half a dozen other employers never did?  And to top it off, they did not report my reimbursed house-hunting expenses as taxable income.  They included them in the W2 but not in taxable income.

[Critter]

You would have to ask them why ... but what they did is not illegal.

[crazyc]

I don't know if it is "illegal."  But unless something has recently changed regarding what is income, I don't think what they are doing is proper.