Cpa Continuing Education

Q: I am both a CPA and a CIS

A: Each certification requires 40 CPE hours per year. In years where I do not have Schedule C income, I itemize these costs along with professional association dues on Schedule A subject to 2% AGI. The question arises as the duplication of CPE hours. I could arrange my Continuing Professional Education so that I could submit the same 40 hours on each form. However, it would be very much to my advantage to max out as much as possible over the next three years and write these costs against Schedule C income. My reason is that I am finishing my Ph.D. at a University in England, am starting to work on a second Masters, and expect costs that can be justified as CPE costs that would also prepare me for two other certification exams. Does anyone know of rules and regs that require I minimize CPE hours or might prohibit me from maximizing?? Anyone know of case law where this issue has come up?

A:Let's operationalize it this way: My CPA CPE requirements only allowed course credit for graduate level courses. So I take a Bankrupcy Law course across the street in the Law School. It meets the State Board's requirements. So what that it is part of an LL.M. program. As long as it is acceptable to the State Board, who is the IRS to challenge the CPE requirements of an intrastate regulatory body appointed by the highest elected public official in the State, i.e., the Governor? I am a CPA, but I do not have a tax practice. If I go get a Masters in Taxation, how is it preparing me for a "new trade or business" when I am already licensed to practice. Now I will agree (because the courts have said so) that courses taken toward professional degrees such as a J.D., an M.D., and a D.D.S. are NEVER deductible. But, an Attorney who specializes in medical malpractice should certainly be able to deduct the cost of spot courses at a medical school as Continuing Professional Education.

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