Are courses and training tax deductible?
Yes, if they keep up or improve the skills your business uses now. Training for a new line of work isn’t.
The rule
Courses, workshops, conferences, books and professional journals are deductible when they relate to the business you are in. A designer’s typography course counts; the same designer’s law school tuition does not, because it trains them for a new trade.
Travel to a conference is deductible as business travel, and meals there at 50%.
Education that you need to meet the minimum requirements of a trade, like the course that first licenses you, isn’t deductible either.
A $399 course for the work you already do is deductible in full.
Priced at 36¢ on the dollar, the rate of a $95,000 sole proprietor in California. Work out yours.
- Where it goes
- Schedule C line 27a, other expenses
- What to keep
- Receipts and what the course covered.
Checked on September 25, 2026 against Publication 334, Tax Guide for Small Business. An estimate for your records, not tax advice.
By the kind of work
What else each of these can deduct, and what they tend to miss.
See it on every receipt.
Snap it and Reimburse files it on the right Schedule C line, takes the deductible share and shows what it puts back.