Are training costs deductible...

[i4iq]

Hi All

 

I'm sure this has probably been asked before but could someone tell me if training costs are deductible against Instrutor earnings in the US?

 

Thanks for any advice

[flingwing206]

The costs of becoming a CFI cannot be deducted from your earnings as a CFI. In general, you can't claim a deduction for the costs of training for a new profession.

[klas]

After you become a CFI, you can deduct moving expenses to a new job (CFI or otherwise) if it is more than a certain number of miles from your old one. That helps....

[gmsemel]

In general, nope. Some expenses are deductible from federal Income tax, but unless your total deductions are equal or greater than what the IRS standard deduction, Single Tax payer is at around 4800 dollars or there abouts. It will do you no good as far a a federal return goes. I been down this road, my long time accountant could never find a way to be able to write off either training or currency and when we could, it didn't amount to much of a savings, just took way to much time to prepare the return. Things like CFI renewal and such are deductibe as long as you are making a living as a CFI, so you get to take the 250 off, now you need another 4550 just to be even with the standard deduction. You will have to file 1040 Long Form. So unless you have a lot of other deductable expenses, like some intrest on loans, doing an itemized return, ends up more time than its worth. Plus you really need to keep every accurate records. In the old days, sales taxes all interest, taxes on fuel, mileage and just about all intrest were deductible, and income averaging and a few other things. I was able to get a little pass the standard deduction numbers, but never by a whole lot dollar wise. Now there are so few things that are deductible, credit card intrest is not, use to be. It was stupid to run up a card for a tax deduction. But that was then when you could. Be careful, if you are useing programs like Turbo Tax, pay close attention, its very easy to make errors. I know I did, and it took close to a year to sort out and I still needed an accountant to make the corrections. Didn't save anything over what my accountant bills.

[fry]

Hi All

 

I'm sure this has probably been asked before but could someone tell me if training costs are deductible against Instrutor earnings in the US?

 

Thanks for any advice

 

Try this:

 

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc513.html

[i4iq]

Thanks for the response everyone.

 

So, from what I gather, costs of going from CFI to CFII are deductible? (I'll do some more reading...)

[fry]

Thanks for the response everyone.

 

So, from what I gather, costs of going from CFI to CFII are deductible? (I'll do some more reading...)

 

That is probably a supportable position, i.e., that the costs of going from CFI to CFII qualify as "maintains or improves skills required in your present job".

 

But if you are an employee...i.e., not an independent contractor...for those deductions to have any benefit you would have itemize, rather than use the standard deduction, and even then the costs would have to exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income. Unless you've got a home mortgage you're probably not itemizing so deductablity of your CFII costs is not going to be an issue for you.