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Travel as Education You can't deduct the cost of travel as a form of education even if it is directly related to your duties in your work or business. Example. You are a French language teacher. While on sabbatical leave granted for travel, you traveled through France to improve your knowledge of the French language. You chose your itinerary and most of your activ- ities to improve your French language skills. You can't de- duct your travel expenses as education expenses. This is true even if you spent most of your time learning French by visiting French schools and families, attending movies or plays, and engaging in similar activities. No Double Benefit Allowed You can't do the following. • Deduct work-related education expenses as business expenses if you benefit from these expenses under any other provision of the law. • Deduct work-related education expenses paid with tax-free scholarship, grant, or employer-provided educational assistance. Adjustments to Qualifying Work-Related Education Expenses If you pay qualifying work-related education expenses with certain tax-free funds, you can't claim a deduction for those amounts. You must reduce the qualifying expenses by the amount of such expenses allocable to the tax-free educational assistance. Tax-free educational assistance. This includes: • The tax-free part of scholarships and fellowship grants (see Tax-Free Scholarships and Fellowship Grants in chapter 1); • The tax-free part of Pell grants (see Pell Grants and Other Title IV Need-Based Education Grants in chap- ter 1); • Employer-provided educational assistance (see chap- ter 10); • Veterans' educational assistance (see Veterans' Ben- efits in chapter 1); and • Any other nontaxable (tax-free) payments (other than gifts or inheritances) received as educational assis- tance. Amounts that don't reduce qualifying work-related education expenses. Don't reduce the qualifying work-related education expenses by amounts paid with funds the student receives as: • Payment for services, such as wages; • A loan; • A gift; • An inheritance; or • A withdrawal from the student's personal savings. Also, don't reduce the qualifying work-related educa- tion expenses by any scholarship or fellowship grant re- ported as income on the student's return or any scholar- ship which, by its terms, can't be applied to qualifying work-related education expenses. How To Treat Reimbursements How you treat reimbursements depends on the arrange- ment you have with your employer. There are two basic types of reimbursement arrange- ments—accountable plans and nonaccountable plans. You can tell the type of plan you are reimbursed under by the way the reimbursement is reported on your Form W-2. Note. The following rules about reimbursement ar- rangements also apply to expense allowances received from your employer. Accountable Plans To be an accountable plan, your employer's reimburse- ment arrangement must require you to meet all three of the following rules. • Your expenses must have a business connection. This means your expenses must be allowed under the rules for qualifying work-related education explained earlier. • You must adequately account to your employer for your expenses within a reasonable period of time. • You must return any reimbursement or allowance in excess of the expenses accounted for within a rea- sonable period of time. If you are reimbursed under an accountable plan, your employer shouldn't include any reimbursement of income on your Form W-2, box 1. If your employer included reimbursements on your Form W-2, box 1, and you meet all three rules for accountable plans, ask your employer for a corrected Form W-2. Accountable plan rules not met. Even though you are reimbursed under an accountable plan, some of your ex- penses may not meet all three rules for accountable plans. Those expenses that fail to meet the three rules are treated as having been reimbursed under a Nonaccounta- ble Plan (discussed later). Expenses equal reimbursement. Under an accounta- ble plan, if your expenses equal your reimbursement, you don't complete Form 2106. Because your expenses and reimbursements are equal, you don't have unreimbursed work-related education expenses. TIP Page 64 Chapter 11 Business Deduction for Work-Related Education