I'm a performing musician so I intended to deduct my private instrumental lessons as a work-related education expense on my schedule C. However, I have found Pub. 970 to be slightly vague in addressing who must pay for the incurred expenses. My parents would give me a check made to my teacher each week for me to pay for my lesson with. In this instance, does that count as a gift since they are paying my "bill" for the lesson without any compensation in return? Similar to how the educational exclusion works for tuition to a qualifying school. Pub. 970 states that expenses paid with funds received as gifts should not be excluded from the viable work-related education so I'm still a little unsure on the matter.
