(MONEY Magazine) – Your questions this month are answered with the help of George E.L. Barbee, ! executive director of personal financial services for Price Waterhouse in Waltham, Mass.

Q. Can investment expenses -- such as brokerage commissions, IRA fees or the cost of trips to check on investment property -- be deducted without itemizing? Michael Perkins, Gillette, Wyo. A. It depends on the expense. Brokers' commissions reduce your capital gain, so they are in effect deducted even if you don't itemize. That's also true of IRA management fees that are drawn directly from your IRA account. If you pay the fee separately, however, it may be deducted only as an itemized miscellaneous expense, subject to the 2%-of-AGI floor. Most other investment-related expenses -- including record-keeping fees and certain trips to inspect investments -- must likewise be itemized.

Q. I am having a home built in Florida that I plan to make my primary residence. If I close on it before I sell my current primary residence, a co- op in New York City, can I still roll over the capital gains on my co-op profit? Cherie Doughan, Flushing, N.Y. A. Yes. You have two years before or after you sell your principal residence to defer the gain into your new home and to occupy it. Of course, to shelter your entire profit, the price of the new house -- including land and construction -- must equal or exceed the adjusted selling price of your old one.

Q. I received disability benefits for a few months this year. How are they treated for tax purposes? J.L. Richardson, Burbank, Calif. A. It depends on who paid the premiums on the policy. If you paid them, the benefits are tax-free. If your employer did, you owe taxes on them.