Can you claim professional license renewal fees and costs for continuing education courses to meet annual CPE hour requirements to maintain the professional license?

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
July 10, 2020
2 replies
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This would be for a licensed BCBA who paid for a certification renewal in 2019. The BCBA also paid for webinars/conferences in 2019 to meet continuing education requirements to maintain the certification.

TurboTax Premier Online

Hal_Al

Employee

Simple answer: No.

If you are a regular W-2 employee, you are no longer (effective 2018) allowed to deduct job expenses, like CPE and licence fees. Even when you were allowed to, it was only an itemized deduction subject to the 2% of AGI threshold.

If you are self employed, all of that is still deductible on Schedule C. Enter as "other expenses"

joseph-mancariAuthor

Thanks, and the same theory would apply on the NY State Form IT-196, correct? I had thought I read somewhere that professional development could still qualify for a deduction towards the 2% AGI threshold on the state return.

Hal_Al

Employee

I'm nor familiar with NY rules.

If no one else responds, you want to ask a new question in the state tax section

Yvonette1

I am using the Deluxe Turbotax and I cannot find a place to report my annual fees for licensure and continuing education hours that are required

VolvoGirl

Employee

Are you using Online Deluxe or the Desktop program? are you a W2 employee or 1099 independent contractor? You can't deduct employee job expenses anymore but you can on Schedule C for 1099NEC self employment income. If you are using Online Deluxe you need to upgrade to the Self Employed version to enter expenses.