Education Credit

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
February 10, 2021
1 reply
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I have purchased the product on disk but in regards to my question about claiming an education credit the response vague and doesn't answer my question. I am a realtor and paid for credited classes but only have a receipt and no tax form for them. They are classes to maintain my License and are mandatory. Can I claim these classes? They are mandated by MREC.

TurboTax Home & Biz Windows

Hal_Al

Employee

Q. Can I claim these classes?

A. Simple answer: No

But taxes aren't simple.

Continuing Education.

Regular W-2 employees are no longer (since 2018) allowed to deduct job expenses, including education*. If you're self employed, you can deduct the cost, as a business expense, on schedule C.

If the courses were taken at a recognized college or vocational school (educational institutions eligible to participate in the student aid programs administered by the Department of Education), you can take either the Lifetime Learning Credit or the Tuition & fees deduction (but not the Hope or American Opportunity credits)

*Even in the "old days" , job expenses were only a misc. itemized deduction. You only got to deduct that portion of your misc. itemized deductions that exceeded 2% of your AGI, and then only if your total itemized deductions exceeded the standard deduction (which was doubled under the 2018 tax law. . (2% rule explained: https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2902781-what-is-the-2-rule ).