**The replacement cost is not deductible as a moving expense**, even though the damage happened during a qualified move.

Assuming your move qualifies under the rules for its tax year:

- **Shipping the original item:** deductible, along with eligible packing, crating, and transit-insurance costs. The item need not be used for work; household goods and personal possessions qualify.
- **Buying its replacement:** a personal purchase, outside the deductible moving costs described in [IRS Publication 521](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p521--2017.pdf).

A separate **casualty-loss deduction** might warrant consideration under the rules for the year of the damage, but breakage alone does not establish eligibility. The IRS specifically excludes ordinary accidental breakage, such as glassware or china broken under normal conditions. If a loss does qualify, it is generally measured by the lesser of the original item’s adjusted basis or its decline in fair market value, minus reimbursements—not the replacement’s price. Under the ordinary 2017 rules, a $100-per-event reduction and a further reduction of 10% of adjusted gross income also applied. [IRS Publication 547 (2017)](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p547--2017.pdf)

**The tax year matters:** the ordinary job-related moving deduction generally ceased to be available starting in 2018; the [2025 Form 3903 instructions](https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i3903) limit eligibility to qualifying military moves. If yours was an earlier qualified move, the shipping-versus-replacement distinction above still applies.