Are registration fees for a Continuing Medical Education conference deductible? The sponsoring organization is a 501c3 non-profit.

[Hal_Al]

No.  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.

 To be eligible for the tuition credits, the course must be taken at "an eligible institution". The school should be able to tell you if it is an eligible educational institution. In general, an eligible educational institution is an accredited college, university, vocational school, or other postsecondary educational institution, including accredited, public, nonprofit, and proprietary (privately-owned, profit-making) postsecondary institutions. Additionally, in order to be an eligible educational institution, the school must be eligible to participate in a student aid program administered by the Department of Education. If they issue a 1098-T they are probably an eligible institution.

Enter your school at the link below, to see if it's on the dept. of education list.

https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home

[kristian614]

Not looking at this as an education credit or work expense but a donation to a qualified non-profit, such as membership donations for zoos and museums; does that change thinking under that guise?

[Cynthiad66]

Not unless you have a receipt that shows that part of the fee was a donation. If you received something of equal value for the fee, then it is not a donation and it is not deductible.

if your contribution is a substitute for tuition or other enrollment fee, it isn't deductible as a charitable contribution.  Use this link for additional information.

@kristian614