Education:
Attention, Conference-Goers:Don't Overlook Tax Write-Offs
Published on Wed Nov 17, 2010
Attending a meeting to boost a career move may be deductible. If your employer reimburses all of your conference- related expenses, you're home free. But if you end up with non-reimbursed expenses as an employee or independent contractor, you may be able to deduct them from your taxable income. To be deductible, the conference subject matter doesn't have to be "extremely close" to the person's profession, says John Stancil, a professor of accounting at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Fla., who also has a CPA practice specializing in taxes. For example, a nurse who is not a supervisor "could [go to] a conference on nursing administration with a view to moving into administration at some point in the future," Stancil tells Eli. "The main restriction would be that the conference cannot prepare the person for a new job or profession," adds Stancil. "For example, if an LPN were taking courses [...]