What education fees can be deducted as "required"? I've seen examples that a lab fee can be deducted as required, but not general fees.

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 5, 2019
1 reply
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Basically can any fee that is charged in order to take a course deductible under "required? I've seen where lab fees are. We were charged a "Computer Science" fee because of a CS course (not every semester), can that be claimed? What about a Writing Center Lab fee, again because of a particular course, not every semester? One place says that the Activity Fee can be claimed. It looks like most fees that are charged every semester cannot be claimed (e.g., health, recreation, sports, parking, etc), so confused about the Activity fee. Thank you.

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Vanessa11_2

Level 13

Required means that every student is required to pay it in order to attend the school. So, if all students are required to pay an activity fee then it is deductible. If the activity fee is only required if you WANT to attend the activities then it is not deductible.

Certain fees are never deductible. Even if you pay the following expenses to enroll or attend the school, the following are not qualified education expenses:

Room and board
Insurance
Medical expenses (including student health fees)
Transportation
Similar personal, living or family expenses

Here is a link to the IRS site discussing what is and is not deductible. https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/qualified-ed-expenses

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rhondadawson359Author

Level 2

Thank you. One more fee question. I read somewhere when searching on this site, that the "Activity Fee" CAN be claimed as required, but ones like Recreation, health, sports, parking cannot. What about Activity Fee, please? Thank you!