[petersec]

I have a fairly complex tax situation. I am a US national, and I worked for a construction company in Seattle from January to August of 2006. I then relocated to Washington DC for a three month internship with a national magazine for which I received no compensation. At the end of December, I relocated to New York City. In January of 2007, I started working as a freelance writer and editor.

Questions:
Can I deduct my rent, meals, utilities etc. for the time I spent as an unpaid intern in DC? In college I worked for various publications, so it wasn't an entirely new field.

Can I deduct my travel expenses to DC?

Can I deduct my travel expenses to NYC? I plan to work in New York for at least the next two years.

Thank you very much.

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

You can claim your DC travel and living expenses as employee business expenses because you can argue that the internship was the springboard in your career as a writer and editor.

It's an itemized deduction which must be documented on Form 2106, but I would have no problem defending these deductions before an IRS auditor.