
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 2, 1992                   TAG: 9203020006
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TAXPAYERS IN NEED OF HELP SHOULD TAKE TIME TO READ

If you're unemployed and looking for a new job in your most recent field, you can deduct the expenses of the search. But if you've been unemployed for a long time, or if you're looking in a new field, these expenses can't be deducted.

Those are some of the tips you'll find in numerous new and tried-and-true books now available to help taxpayers:

The "H&R Block 1992 Income Tax Guide," designed to help filers deal with the effects of the current economic squeeze. Sample forms and step-by-step instructions are included.

And from "J. K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 1992" comes this advice to dual-earner couples: If you live and work in different cities during the week, you probably can forget about trying to deduct travel expenses between the two locales. Each of you may have a separate tax home.

The Lasser book also is part of a software set, "J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax Software," that helps you compile your records, make out your forms and file electronically with your PC.

Updated versions of the Price Waterhouse tax and financial adviser series include "Retirement Planning Adviser," "Investors' Tax Adviser" and "Personal Tax Adviser."

Getting right to the point for many taxpayers is Kiplinger's "Sure Ways to Cut Your Taxes." The book has separate sections about saving time and money on the return at hand and others about strategies to use all through the year to save on next year's taxes.

About half of all taxpayers get someone else to do the paperwork in filing taxes. Unless your returns are extremely complicated, you're better off with one of the well-known national services that handle high volumes of returns than the tax consultant who sets up shop seasonally, according to The Reader's Digest "Consumer Adviser: An Action Guide to Your Rights." Better yet is an "enrolled agent," someone who has either worked as an IRS auditor or passed a stiff Treasury Department examination, the book says.

Did you get new contact lenses, a hearing device, or orthopedic shoes last year? The odds are you overlooked including them among your deductions. "The Ernst & Young Tax Guide 1992" lists these as among likely items you didn't think about itemizing.

by CNB