Line 22: Job related education expenses

Enter the amount of job-related education expenses, such as tuition, fees, and books.

You can deduct expenses you have for education, even if the education may lead to a degree, if the education meets at least one of the following two tests:

It maintains or improves skills required in your present work.

It is required by your employer or the law to keep your salary, status, or job, and the requirement serves a business purpose of your employer.

You cannot deduct expenses you have for education, even though one or both of the preceding tests are met, if the education is:

needed to meet the minimum educational requirements to qualify you in your trade or business, or

part of a program of study that will lead to qualifying you in a new trade or business.

If your education qualifies, you can deduct expenses for tuition, books, supplies, laboratory fees, similar items, and certain transportation costs.

If the education qualifies you for a new trade or business, you cannot deduct the educational expenses even if you do not intend to enter that trade or business.

Travel as education: You cannot deduct the cost of travel that in itself constitutes a form of education.

Example: A French teacher who travels to France to maintain general familiarity with the French language and culture cannot deduct the cost of the trip as an educational expense.

For additional information, see Itemized deductions and review the 2017 IRS Publication 529, Miscellaneous Deductions.

Education expenses during unemployment: If you stop working for a year or less in order to get education in order to maintain or improve skills needed in your present work, and then return to the same general type of work, your absence is considered temporary. Education that you get during a temporary absence is qualifying work-related education if it maintains or improves skills needed in your present work.