The general rule is: Educational expenses to improve your current job
skills are deductible. But learning a new job is not. From JK Lasser’s Your
Income Tax 2013, pg 580: "For a deduction, the courses must be related to
your existing job responsibilities and not lead to qualification for a new
business. The tax court has allowed deductions for MBA expenses where individuals
with some managerial or administrative experience took the courses to improve
skills needed for their existing jobs." This doesn't come up very often
because most people come out better with the Lifetime Learning credit (LLC) or
tuition & fees adjustment (“above the line” deduction), rather than taking
an itemized deduction subject to the 2% of AGI Threshold. But you can do both
if you tuition is more than $10,000. The first $10,000 of expenses qualifies
you for the LLC and any excess can be claimed as employment expense.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mattsymonds/2014/04/11/the-mba-and-the-taxman-claim-or-not-claim/#4e857f...
Excellent article on deducting MBA
http://www.wsj.com/articles/good-news-for-m-b-a-students-tuition-is-now-more-deductible-1471013805
Recent (2016) court ruling
