so people who are stay at home parents, retired or unemployed for a period of years, you cannot write off the jobs expenses, and you cannot write off costs, tony, if they re related to a new kind of field. say you were in manufacturing and now you are looking for a job in nursing, you can t write off the expenses of that job switch. interesting. let me ask you a question before you move on. if you were a student right out of college and you establish a shingle as a new online media company, right, and you got yourself a tax i.d., you become a corporation, can you then potentially write off job expenses, search expenses? if you fire yourself and you are out of work. you have to be out of work. if you put your shingle up, i don t think i would trust myself. i would consult a tax preparation professional before i did something like that.