Need a job? Contact the IRS for work
as well as job-hunting tax help

I know it's not everybody's ideal place to work, but at least the IRS is hiring. And, hey, the agency got better marks than Facebook on a recent customer satisfaction survey!

Uncle Sam hires new tax office employees throughout the year for various positions. Right now the IRS says it has open slots for revenue agents, revenue officers, criminal investigation special agents, financial analysts and economists.

If you're interested, check out the IRS Careers website. The video below has info on being a Criminal Investigation (CI) Division special agent. I can tell you that at IRS Forums, the CI exhibit table always has the most visitors!

Help is back for the unemployed: If you've been depending on federal unemployment checks to make ends meet, the money will be back en route shortly.

Last week the Senate finally passed a six-month extension of unemployment insurance benefits. The House soon signed off, too, and the prez made it law on Thursday.

Unemployment tax issues: Remember that this tax year, all your unemployment income is taxable.

The exclusion for the first $2,400 in benefits applied only to the 2009 tax year.

Given the increasing focus on government spending and deficits, not to mention the hurdles this latest benefits extension faced, it's unlikely that Congress will reinstate the partial unemployment income tax exclusion for the 2010 tax year.

But be sure to take advantage of other out-of-work related tax breaks.

While you have to report your unemployment as taxable income, some costs incurred to get another job could be deductible.

Job-search costs such as printing resumes, mailing them out, traveling to job interviews and even career counseling can be claimed if you itemize.

The drawback here is that the job-hunting expenses must be for a position in your current career field and that they, along with other miscellaneous expenses, come to more than 2 percent of your adjusted gross income.

Still, hang onto those receipts. If you are able to use them, it could help cut your 2010 tax bill.

Rich and unemployed? Analysis of 2008 tax tax data turned up an interesting statistic.

Seventeen personal income tax returns filed that year reported annual incomes of more than $10 million and — here's the weird part — also reported income from unemployment benefits.

The Economix blog put it best: Did 17 hobos win the lottery in 2008? Or did a few canned CEO's stand on breadlines?

Related posts:

• Unemployment's terrible tax surprise
• Tax concerns of the unemployed
• The no-jobs tax problem
• 3 requirements to deduct job-search costs
  
• Jobs, no jobs and taxes
• Minnesota tax tidbit: federal add-backs

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