Daily News from New York, New York • 37

YJiAO DAILY NEWS Friday April 4, 1986 37 Far ff mm Wmm-mimi It's worth it to move deductions i SYLVIA PORTER r. -5 I- f- -1 Nv- Hotel chain is trying for recognition By JOHN HENRY Daty News Stat Wnte Mention hotel chains and names such as Hilton, Hyatt, Sheraton and Marriott leap to mind. But probably not Omni Hotels. Since 1983, the name has checked in at a number of long-established hotels around the U.S., including two here the big New York Sheraton (now Omni Park Central) and the smaller, more elegant Berkshire (now Omni Berkshire Place). But the fast-growing 20-unit chain, which last year rang up $363 million in revenue, has a problem.

"Surveys show our recognition is low even in key cities we are in," said Michael Wien, Omni's marketing vice president. Look in the newspaper The chain hopes to change that through aggressive promotions such as the one begun Wednesday with full-page newspaper ads. Called "Stay Omni, Say Aloha," the promotion offers a free round-trip air ticket to Hawaii to those staying with Omni seven nights at full price over the next three months. "We can't continue along the track of most hotel companies of trying to build name awareness through image advertising," said Wien. If Omni has a recognition problem, it's understandable.

The first Omni opened its doors in Atlanta 11 years ago, and as late as 1983 the chain had just three hotels. COUNTLESS TENS of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of you pay needless totals of taxes on your annual return to the IRS because you do not understand what you can deduct for moving expenses. And the odds that you'll overpay the IKS in this area are much greater than the odds that you'll underpay. In digging into deductions for moving expenses, Eli J. Warach, divisional senior vice president and editor in-chief of Prentice Hall, stressed to me the importance of urging you to seek professional help on these expenses if you moved in 1985 and.

like most taxpayers, are generally uninformed on what you can and cannot deduct. All I can do is hint at the big deductions you might miss, and by so doing, guide you on where to look for limits and how to avoid the censure of the IRS. There are limits Overall dollar limit: While direct moving expenses are completely deductible, there is a $3,000 overall dollar limit on the deduction of indirect moving expenses. Moreover, the portion of indirect moving expenses that is for house-hunting and temporary living expenses cannot exceed $1,500. How to qualify: To get a deduction for moving expenses, you must satisfy two tests: 1) Distance test: The new job must be at least 35 miles farther from your old home than the old job was from the" old home.

If you have no former place of work, the new job must be at least 35 miles from the former residence. 2) The 39 week test: As an employe, you must work full-time in the general vicinity of your new job location for 39 weeks during the 12 months following your move. As a self employed taxpayer, you must continue ff i of two Omni Hotels in New tommonasteroailynews name was better known than its own among the upscale business travelers it was trying to woo, according to Dunfey Hotels senior vice president Roger Cline. Whether or not the new owners were right, they wound up with a challenge. Said Loretta Ivany, managing editor of Lodging Hospitality magazine: "They (Omni) are progressing, but they certainly aren't at the point of being a household word." meet managing the Third World debt problem.

The official EEC position on the debt situtation is that private banks and international institutions such as the World Bank should make more money available to the most heavily indebted nations, such as Mexico and Venezuela. Most of the EEC nations also want steps to be taken to encourage a larger flow of private investment to debt-laden countries. The ministers' agenda also includes a look at the Common Market's relations with Japan. Ties have strained in recent years by the growing European trade deficit with that nation George Lazarus is on vacation. His column will resume next week.

full time work on the new location (as a self-employed person or as an employe) for at least 78 weeks during the 24 months following the move, of which at least 39 weeks must be in the first year. NOTE; If you, as an employe, move and change to a self-employed status before meeting the 39-week test, you are subject to the longer 78 week test. When to claim the deduction: You may elect to claim a deduction for moving expenses in the year they are paid or incurred even though the post-move time requirements haven't been met If the deduction is taken in one year and the time test is not satisfied in a later year, an amount equal to the deduction taken is included in that subsequent year's income. File an amended return If. though, you do not claim a deduction in the year of payment, but in a later year you meet the time requirements, you may file an amended return for the year the expenses were paid.

IMPORTANT: If an em ployer reimburses you for moving expenses, you must include the reimbursement in income and then take a moving-expense deduction. You claim the moving expense deduction by filling out Form 3903 and transferring the amount on line II to line 24 of Form 1040. Any reimbursement must be reported on line 7 of Form 1040. $315 million in customer funds were missing. Those reported indicted were ESM co founders Ronnie It.

Ewton and George Mead; vice presidents Charles W. Streicher, Timothy Murphy, Stanley Wolte, Thomas Saunders and Nicholas B. Wallace: and Early Riddel, a controller who left ESM in 1980. Also reported indicted was Jose Gorwz. a former accountant at Alexander Grant Co.

He certified ESM's fraudulent financial statements. Finance ministers -f THE OMNI Park Central is one York City. That was the year Dunfey Hotels a New Hampshire-based subsidiary of Ireland's Aer Lingus, bought the tiny chain. Since then, it has put the Omni name on such classy Dunfey-managed hotels as Boston's Parker House, Washington's Shoreham, and Chicago's Ambassador East Ironically, Dunfey, whose name still appears on less expensive "mid-market" hotels, believed the Omni issues, officials said. The meeting, in the Dutch village of Oodmarsum, will be the ministers' last before the opening next week of a series of high-level international economic climaxing with the May 4 to May 6 summit in Tokyo of the seven major industrialized Those are Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United States and West Germany.

More aid The European finance officers will seek to unify their positions on the central economic and financial issues facing the Western world, including ways of ad nourjps GEORGE LAZARUS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BRUSSELS, Belgium Finance ministers of the 12 European Economic Community nations meet Saturday for informal discussions on the Third World debt crisis and the prospects for further interest rate declines. The ministers also are expected to discuss the oil price collapse, its effects on European currencies and the; possibility of Britain the only oil exporter in the Common Market cooperating with other major oil producers in an effort to stabilize prices. No formal decisions are expected on any of these Ex-ESIYJ officers indicted UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL MIAMI Eight former officers of ESM Government Securities who lived lavishly while the firm went bankrupt, have been indicted by a federal grand jury along with a former Miami accountant on about 45 counts of fraud, their lawyers said. The collapse of ESM 13 months ago triggered a run on savings and loan associations In Ohio after the federal Securities and Exchange Commission alleged a massive fraud in which about.