One of our members spent more than $30,000 on real estate investment classes.

Tax law contains provisions that might allow these expenses to qualify as deductible business education. That’s one possible path to the deduction.

The law also contains provisions that might allow the expenses to qualify as deductible (and amortizable) start-up expenses.

Situation

By the time her husband passed away, our member had already assumed ownership of his business. But without the husband, the business did not work well. It lost two of its biggest clients, and that made the business a loser and gave our member no income.

She and her husband had always talked about flipping houses, so she signed up for a free event offered by an outfit called Success Path Education (also known as Advanced Real Estate Education, among other names) to learn how to flip houses and become a real estate investor.

She enrolled in two of the company’s courses, paying $13,148 and $18,500, respectively. ... Log in to view full article.