Information about Relocation for new Fellows

First, a few tips on managing your move to Stanford and helping to insure prompt reimbursement of your expenses:

—Save originals of all receipts as well as any credit cards slips and statements showing related charges. Photocopies of such documents are not acceptable.

—Reimbursements for moving expenses, as for all kinds of reimbursable expenses, cannot be made until after your hire date (Sept 1). You can take much of the sting out of moving expenses by working with the companies (shown below) with whom Stanford has established contractual relationships, as they will be able to bill Stanford directly, requiring less out-of-pocket payment from you.

—Try to balance the use of your moving expense funding in the way that best suits you. For example, if you have relatively few household possessions to move, you may elect to ship these items to your new address using typical carriers, and use a larger portion of the funds for house hunting and other arrangements. If you have a large enough household to warrant hiring a moving company to handle it, you will probably want to keep house hunting and related expenses to a minimum.
—Please keep in mind that Stanford will not reimburse you for any moving-related costs exceeding the moving funds stipulated in your offer letter, and your other fund sources are non-transferable.


You are eligible for reimbursement for both house hunting and moving expenses for you and your family.  This includes moving services, airfare, lodging, personal auto mileage and meals. A summary of Stanford's policies on moving expenses follows. If you are interested in more detail, you can download a pdf file by clicking here.

Moving Services: (this part is still being worked on...everything below is correct, but more may be added) If you are choosing a moving service for the first time, definitely look at the AMSA website, www.moving.org for guidelines on how to plan your move, get an estimate, avoid fraud, etc.

—Stanford will reimburse actual and reasonable expenses of moving the household and personal effects of a new employee, spouses/same-sex domestic partners and dependent children living at home, up to the amount specified in your offer letter.

—Stanford Risk Management Office recommends that insurance on the move be obtained from the Moving Contractor. Insurance on the household goods should be all-risk, replacement-cost valuation.

The University maintains contracts with three moving contractors and has some useful guidelines for how to plan your move.

Start here for the basic guidlines: http://purchasing.stanford.edu/moving/index.html

The contractors are listed here: http://purchasing.stanford.edu/moving/contacts.html


—Below are three recommended movers for our Program. (We have always recommended these, without problems, but I am currently in the process of re-evaluating these companies in light of Stanford's above contracts.) You are not required to use these companies, but if you choose to hire them, you can ask them to send a bill to us and thereby avoid having to front the expense.

United Van Lines
Crown Worldwide Moving/Storage
(800) 898-4698
Contact: Rick Hosea
http://www.crownwms.com/


United Van Lines
Suddath Relocation Systems
(408) 288-3030 ext. 2836
Contact: Geoffrey Elmore


United Van Lines
Rossiter Relocation
(800) 272-0786
Contact: Alma Anguiano
 

If you choose a moving company that is not one of the above and you plan to have the bill authorized by and paid forby us, please contact me before you sign anything to set this up.

Airfare:
—We will reimburse house hunting travel and/or moving travel.
—Retain original air passenger receipt (last part of ticket) that shows the actual airfare.  For electronic travel, use receipts generated by the travel agency.  For ticketless travel, the itinerary and the confirmation are not acceptable receipts, as they do not supply proof of payment; you will need to supplement these documents with something showing payment, such as a printout of the on-line purchase showing the amount charged (and to what card), or a credit card statement showing the charge.
— Copies of receipts are not acceptable.  If you lose your receipt, contact the airline or travel agency for a new copy.
— You must make every effort to use the lowest available fare.  Stanford will reimburse for up to the coach fare, except for non-stop international flights over 8 hours which will be reimbursed up to business class.

Lodging:
—You can be reimbursed for lodging while traveling, or for temporarily living here.
—Retain original itemized hotel receipts that show payment was made. Meals should be itemized separately.
—Personal charges on hotel bills, such as movies and gym use are not reimbursable.
—Indicate your relationship to any persons who stayed with you.
—Reasonable costs will be reimbursed. We may be able to help you make reservations for reasonably priced lodgings if you wish.

Meals:
—Provide original receipts and indicate separately any amount spent on alcohol.
—Reasonable costs will be reimbursed.

Tax Implications:
—Expenses fall into two categories: Not tax-reportable and tax-reportable. You may wish to consult the following information to minimize your tax-reportable reimbursement (by selecting to be reimbursed for the not tax-reportable expenses.)

Not Tax-Reportable: moving household goods and personal effects; en route travel; en route lodging (but not meals); storage of household goods for up to 30 days; expenses for the employee or members of the employee's household. (The IRS does not recognize a domestic partner as a member of the employee's household.)

Tax-Reportable:  house hunting expenses; temporary living expenses; Same-sex domestic partner moving expenses; en route meals; an additional 20 cents/mile mileage allowance; an additional 30 days storage of household goods; expenses for return trips to the employee's former residence. Further information about tax reporting of moving expenses may be obtained from the IRS web site, or you can click here to download a PDF version of the relevant IRS Publication 521.

This page was last modified on March 19, 2008