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4 Answers

Tax considerations for flight training.

Asked by: 10337 views Flight Instructor

I am working on obtaining my ground instructor credentials (AGI, IGI). Once I have these in place, will the rest of my flight training expenses for Instrument, Commercial, CFI/I become tax deductible?

My understanding is that once I have the Ground Instructor credentials, the rest of my flight training (used to further my aviation career) would become tax deductible.

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4 Answers



  1. LTCTerry on Sep 19, 2014

    No.

    Once you have the first ground instructor certificate though, you can claim the training for additional ground instructor qualification(s) on your taxes.

    The IRS does not let you claim training for any new career. College student/burger flipper to ground instructor is a new career. Any initial ground instructor to enhanced ground instructor is an improvement in an existing field.

    Private pilot training is not deductible (recreational). Commercial pilot training is not deductible because it qualifies you for a new career. Once you are a commercial pilot, type ratings and ATP are generally deductible because they expand the existing commercial pilot career.

    CFI training is not deductible because teaching flying is a different career than commercial flying. Once you are a CFI, then CFII and ME are deductible, because they expand the career.

    People think I’m crazy when I say this, but it’s correct according to every IRS pub I’ve read and every accountant I’ve asked – get a glider private, glider commercial, and glider CFI. Then you are a commercial pilot and a flight instructor. Expanding these skills by ADDING ON ASEL and IFR to these existing certificates is all tax deductible.

    The first of anything career-related is not deductible. All expansion/maintenance after that is.

    Want to make that $85,000 professional pilot course tax deductible? Spend a summer flying gliders and earning certificates. All that flight time “counts” towards the rest of the ratings, too, so it’s not wasted money at all.

    For someone young enough, consider this: Solo at 14. Glider private at 16, then power solo. At 17 you show up for your ASEL checkride with a year of genuine PIC experience/confidence gained from taking family/friends for glider rides as you add-on power to your certificate.

    Perhaps even better for future CFI candidates, there’s almost no one in the FAA to do CFI-G checkrides, so you get an examiner.

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  2. Nibake on Sep 19, 2014

    This probably isn’t the right place for tax advice. While I don’t disagree with LTCTerry you should really talk to an accountant. One discrepancy with Terry’s answer would be, for example, if you do flight instruction at an accredited school then you are paying tax-deductible tuition.

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  3. LTCTerry on Sep 20, 2014

    IRS Topic 457 – Tuition and Fees Deduction

    “You may be able to deduct…

    NOTE: The tuition and fees deduction expired December 31, 2013. You may claim it on your tax year 2013 tax return. Under current law, the deduction is not available for tax years after 2013.”

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  4. Gregory Perry on Sep 27, 2014

    If you earn your private pilot, wouldn’t the instrument rating be tax deductible as expanding the career of the pilot? Or is this not deductible because the private rating is considered entirely recreational?

    Does it change the analysis with the following facts: I own my own business and will fly my company-owned plane under Part 91 to various business meetings. Can the business deduct any of my flight training expenses (instrument, commercial) under Section 162, etc? My company is paying my insurance, and that seems to be deductible, right? And if my company wants me to get instrument rated to lower that insurance bill, it seems that training that the instrument rating would also be deductible. Thanks

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