Qualifying Education

You can deduct the costs of qualifying education. This is education that meets at least one of the following two tests.

1. The education is required by your employer or the law to keep your present salary, status, or job. The required education must serve a bona fide business purpose of your employer.
2. The education maintains or improves skills needed in your present work.

However, even if the education meets one or both of the above tests, it is not qualifying education if it:

1. Is needed to meet the minimum educational requirements of your present trade or business, or
2. Is part of a program of study that will qualify you for a new trade or business.

You can deduct the expenses for qualifying education even if the education could lead to a degree.

You can use Figure A as a quick check to see if your education qualifies.

Education Required by Employer or by Law

Once you have met the minimum educational requirements for your job, your employer or the law may require you to get more education. This additional education is qualifying education if all three of the following requirements are met.

1. It is required for you to keep your present salary, status, or job,
2. The requirement serves a business purpose of your employer, and
3. The education is not part of a program that will qualify you for a new trade or business.

When you get more education than your employer or the law requires, the additional education can be qualifying education only if it maintains or improves skills required in your present work. See Education To Maintain or Improve Skills.

Example. You are a teacher who has satisfied the minimum requirements for teaching. Your employer requires you to take an additional college course each year to keep your teaching job. If the courses will not qualify you for a new trade or business, they are qualifying education even if you eventually receive a master's degree and an increase in salary because of this extra education.

Education To Maintain or Improve Skills

If your education is not required by your employer or the law, it can be qualifying education only if it maintains or improves skills needed in your present work. This could include refresher courses, courses on current developments, and academic or vocational courses.

Example. You repair televisions, radios, and stereo systems for XYZ Store. To keep up with the latest changes, you take special courses in radio and stereo service. These courses maintain and improve skills required in your work.

Maintaining skills vs. qualifying for new job. Education to maintain or improve skills needed in your present work is not qualifying education if it will also qualify you for a new trade or business.

Temporary absence. If you stop working for a year or less in order to get education to maintain or improve skills needed in your present work and then return to the same work, your absence is considered temporary. Education that you get during a temporary absence is qualifying education if it maintains or improves skills needed in your present work.

Example. You quit your biology research job to become a full-time biology graduate student for one year. If you return to work in biology research after completing the courses, the education is related to your present work even if you do not go back to work with the same employer.

Indefinite absence. If you stop work for more than a year, your absence from your job is considered indefinite. Education during an indefinite absence, even if it maintains or improves skills needed in the work from which you are absent, is considered to qualify you for a new trade or business. Therefore, it is not qualifying education.

Figure A. Does Your Education Qualify?

Education To Meet Minimum Requirements

Education you need to meet the minimum educational requirements for your present trade or business is not qualifying education. The minimum educational requirements are determined by:

1. Laws and regulations,
2. Standards of your profession, trade, or business, and
3. Your employer.

Once you have met the minimum educational requirements that were in effect when you were hired, you do not have to meet any new minimum educational requirements. This means that if the minimum requirements change after you were hired, any education you need to meet the new requirements can be qualifying education.

You have not necessarily met the minimum educational requirements of your trade or business simply because you are already doing the work.

Example 1. You are a full-time engineering student. Although you have not received your degree or certification, you work part time as an engineer for a firm that will employ you as a full-time engineer after you finish college. Although your college engineering courses improve your skills in your present job, they are also needed to meet the minimum job requirements for a full-time engineer. The education is not qualifying education.

Example 2. You are an accountant and you have met the minimum educational requirements of your employer. Your employer later changes the minimum educational requirements and requires you to take college courses to keep your job. These additional courses can be qualifying education because you have already satisfied the minimum requirements that were in effect when you were hired.

Requirements for Teachers

States or school districts usually set the minimum educational requirements for teachers. The requirement is the college degree or the minimum number of college hours usually required of a person hired for that position.

If there are no requirements, you will have met the minimum educational requirements when you become a faculty member. You generally will be considered a faculty member when one or more of the following occurs.

1. You have tenure.
2. Your years of service count toward obtaining tenure.
3. You have a vote in faculty decisions.
4. Your school makes contributions for you to a retirement plan other than social security or a similar program.

Example 1. The law in your state requires beginning secondary school teachers to have a bachelor's degree, including ten professional education courses. In addition, to keep the job, a teacher must complete a fifth year of training within 10 years from the date of hire. If the employing school certifies to the state Department of Education that qualified teachers cannot be found, the school can hire persons with only 3 years of college. However, to keep their jobs, these teachers must get a bachelor's degree and the required professional education courses within 3 years.

Under these facts, the bachelor's degree, whether or not it includes the ten professional education courses, is considered the minimum educational requirement for qualification as a teacher in your state.

If you have all the required education except the fifth year, you have met the minimum educational requirements. The fifth year of training is qualifying education unless it is part of a program of study that will qualify you for a new trade or business.

Example 2. Assume the same facts as in Example 1 except that you have a bachelor's degree and only six professional education courses. The additional four education courses can be qualifying education. Although you do not have all the required courses, you have already met the minimum educational requirements.

Example 3. Assume the same facts as in Example 1 except that you are hired with only 3 years of college. The courses you take that lead to a bachelor's degree (including those in education) are not qualifying education. They are needed to meet the minimum educational requirements for employment as a teacher.

Example 4. You have a bachelor's degree and you work as a temporary instructor at a university. At the same time, you take graduate courses toward an advanced degree. The rules of the university state that you can become a faculty member only if you get a graduate degree. Also, you can keep your job as an instructor only as long as you show satisfactory progress toward getting this degree. You have not met the minimum educational requirements to qualify you as a faculty member. The graduate courses are not qualifying education.

Certification in a new state. Once you have met the minimum educational requirements for teachers for your state, you are considered to have met the minimum educational requirements in all states. This is true even if you must get additional education to be certified in another state. Any additional education you need is qualifying education. You have already met the minimum requirements for teaching. Teaching in another state is not a new trade or business.

Example. You hold a permanent teaching certificate in State A and are employed as a teacher in that state for several years. You move to State B and are promptly hired as a teacher. You are required, however, to complete certain prescribed courses to get a permanent teaching certificate in State B. These additional courses are qualifying education because the teaching position in State B involves the same general kind of work for which you were qualified in State A.

Education That Qualifies You for a New Trade or Business

Education that is part of a program of study that will qualify you for a new trade or business is not qualifying education. This is true even if you do not plan to enter that trade or business.

If you are an employee, a change of duties that involves the same general kind of work is not a new trade or business.

Example 1. You are an accountant. Your employer requires you to get a law degree at your own expense. You register at a law school for the regular curriculum that leads to a law degree. Even if you do not intend to become a lawyer, the education is not qualifying because the law degree will qualify you for a new trade or business.

Example 2. You are a general practitioner of medicine. You take a 2-week course to review developments in several specialized fields of medicine. The course does not qualify you for a new profession. It is qualifying education because it maintains or improves skills required in your present profession.

Example 3. While working in the private practice of psychiatry, you enter a program to study and train at an accredited psychoanalytic institute. The program will lead to qualifying you to practice psychoanalysis. The psychoanalytic training does not qualify you for a new profession. It is qualifying education because it maintains or improves skills required in your present profession.

Bar or CPA Review Course

Review courses to prepare for the bar examination or the certified public accountant (CPA) examination are not qualifying education. They are part of a program of study that can qualify you for a new profession.

Teaching and Related Duties

All teaching and related duties are considered the same general kind of work. A change in duties in any of the following ways is not considered a change to a new business.

1. Elementary school teacher to secondary school teacher.
2. Teacher of one subject, such as biology, to teacher of another subject, such as art.
3. Classroom teacher to guidance counselor.
4. Classroom teacher to school administrator.

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