This
is a tax topic that applies to many families, professionals and students. A
deduction is available if the education maintains or improves the skills
related to one’s trade or business, or if the education is required by law or
an employer to keep one’s position or job. Conversely, educational costs aren't
deductible if the education is required to get into the field (as opposed to
staying in the field) or qualifies you for a new trade or business.
For
example, a dentist cannot deduct basic dental school costs because they are
required to enter the field, but once he becomes a dentist any courses he takes
to keep current or learn new techniques are deductible.
The
expenses of becoming a specialist within a field may or may not be deductible.
For example, if the goal all along was to become a psychiatrist and the
individual went straight through medical school, internship, and then into a
psychiatric residency, all of the costs would be treated as required to enter
the field and wouldn't be deductible. However, an internist who has already
been practicing medicine for a period of time can deduct the costs of a
psychiatric program he enters as improving skills within his profession.
Many
taxpayers take law-related courses as helpful to their professions or
businesses. Seminars within your profession on law-related issues are
deductible since they improve your skills. On the other hand, law school
courses (even if taken for the same purpose) are generally not deductible
because they lead to qualifying you for a new profession.
If
your educational costs are deductible under the above tests, you can include
the transportation costs involved in getting from work to the course location
or vice versa. Transportation between home and the course location is deductible
for education undertaken on a temporary or irregular basis. If the
transportation is in the nature of a commute it's not deductible. If you're
away from home for deductible education, you can include the costs of travel,
meals (at 50%), and lodging as well. However, travel
as the educational vehicle itself isn't deductible.
In the
case of an employee, education expenses that are deductible under the above
tests may be claimed as an itemized deduction, but only to the extent the
expenses, along with other miscellaneous itemized deductions, exceed 2% of the
taxpayer's adjusted gross income (AGI). And in the case of taxpayers with high
AGI, miscellaneous itemized deductions are subject to a further overall limit
on itemized deductions.
You
must reduce your deductible expenses to the extent you receive a tax-exempt
scholarship for the education. Similarly, to the extent an employee has his
education costs reimbursed by his employer, the amount qualifying as deductible
is reduced. How the deduction and reimbursement are treated for tax purposes
depends on how the employer sets up the reimbursement procedures.
In
addition to taking an itemized deduction for education expenses, if you incur
debt in obtaining education, interest you pay on student loans taken out may be
deductible as an above-the-line deduction to determine AGI. This means that you
don't have to itemize to take the deduction, and that the deduction isn't
subject to the overall limit on itemized deductions. The maximum deduction is
$2,500 per year, subject to a phaseout for taxpayers
with high AGI.
Instead
of taking a deduction for education expenses, taxpayers may claim the
Hope/Lifetime Learning credits for qualified tuition and related expenses. The
maximum Hope credit a taxpayer may claim for year 2006 is $1,650 per
student, for the first two years of undergraduate education at an eligible
education institution. The maximum Lifetime Learning credit that may be claimed
is $2,000 per year per taxpayer, for any post-high school education
(including courses to acquire or improve job skills) at an eligible education
institution. The Hope/Lifetime Learning credits are also subject to phaseout for taxpayers with high AGI.
An
above-the-line deduction is no longer available for certain higher education
expenses since it expired at the end of 2005.
Taxpayers
who incur education expenses must decide how to take maximum advantage of these
complex rules. Taxpayers who take the standard deduction instead of itemizing
their deductions will want to claim the Hope/Lifetime Learning credits. Other
taxpayers will have to decide whether to take an itemized deduction or the
Hope/Lifetime Learning credits for their education expenses.
Taxpayers
who aren't subject to the overall limit on itemized deductions may find that an
itemized deduction for education expenses is more advantageous than the
Lifetime Learning credit because itemized deductions reduce a taxpayer's
taxable income, and thus the education expenses save taxes at a taxpayer's top
tax rate. Plus, the itemized deduction is not subject to any amount or AGI
limits, as are both the Lifetime Learning credit and the higher education
expense deduction. On the other hand, if the education expenses aren't related
to a taxpayer's current trade or business, but are incurred to acquire or
improve job skills, even for a new trade or business, the expenses aren't
deductible as an itemized deduction, but might qualify for the Lifetime
Learning credit.
If you
have any questions, please call our firm for further guidance on these issues.