Changes to Taxability of Employee Relocation Expenses

Changes included in the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (Public Law PL 115-97), require employee relocation expenses to be taxable to recipients.

Under prior tax law, most payments made by an employer to or on behalf of an employee to offset the costs of relocation were excluded from the employee’s taxable income, i.e., such payments were non-taxable. The newly signed into law Tax Cuts and Jobs Act suspends this exclusion.This means that employee relocation payments, as discussed in the Financial Services Manual, will be taxable and subject to withholding; therefore, we will update the relevant sections of the manual as applicable.

Thank you for your patience while we adapt to these changes.  For questions regarding this notice, please contact Accounts Payable at (520) 621-9097 or Tax Services at (520) 621-1957.