I recently did a tax evaluation for Joe, one of our students in our School of Tax Strategy. He has a follow up question to our discussion:

Q: Hi Tom I had a follow up question re our tax review. I took a 3 day rich dad stock trading class in Nov 08 ~$500 I also signed yup for stock trading advanced course work $24k. I don't have an entities set up for trading or real estate yet - we just file a personal IRS 1040 for 2007 tax yr Could we claim this education as a business expense? thanks lots, Joe

A: This is a common question from seminar participants. In recent years, the IRS has been challenging the deductibility of a lot of seminar expenses. The reason is that education, unless it's to improve job performance, is not deductible? Why? Because it is not for producing income.

There is a way, however, to make seminar expenses deductible. How? Simply show that you are using the seminar to POTENTIALLY produce income. In other words, start a business. Take that great information you learned at all of those seminars and put it into practice. Actually start that business. Then, the education expenses can be treated as Start Up costs. For more on Start Up costs and how to deduct them, try our course on Start Up expenses at http://wealthstrategyuproducts.com. If you want to learn how to start that business, join our School of Wealth Strategy at http://provisionwealth.com/products. At ProVision, we want you to succeed in your tax reduction AND in your business and wealth strategies.

Remember that when you reduce your taxes and build the foundation for a strong business, your financial freedom is closer than you think.

Warmest regards,

Tom