George Takei 
🏳️🌈🖖🏽I’m George Takei and I support this message.
Vee
Karl Auerbach@georgetakei And people who maintain work at home spaces ought to be able to deduct those expenses without simultaneously inviting a visit from the IRS.
Julian Andres Klode 🏳️🌈@georgetakei International story time.
So in Germany you can write off the costs when they occur (university costs, like 1000€ a year; and cost of living if you keep a 2nd residence in university town), and for 2nd higher education (master's e.g.) you can carry them forward to future years where you have income.
Of course if you have income the same year you'll have to use them up.
I don't think you can write off loans later on, it would kind of be a double write off which would be weird.
Patrick O'Beirne@juliank @georgetakei
In Ireland you (ie the payer) get tax relief on student fees.
derptron@juliank @georgetakei This was at least true in the US in the 90's and early 00's--but as a student I found the standard deduction zeroed me out anyway so whatever.
(((Jann Gobble)))🏳️🌈@georgetakei I wonder what the IRS would say if someone tried this?
It *IS* a business expense! 😂
RhyothemisI was able to write off my tuition remission benefit back in the 90's when I had to get a subject master's degree as a job requirement for tenure as a science reference librarian at a university (I earned the degree while working). I didn't know how to file it properly with the IRS, though - so I got audited. I explained my situation to the IRS agent and she was very nice. She walked me through the process so my filing was corrected and I did not have to pay any penalties.
Craig JohnstonOh my .. that is too logical but will never fly
Draken BlackKnight@georgetakei
If your job requires a college degree, you should check to see if you were lowballed on pay because I see a lot of jobs "requiring" BA/BS degrees only paying maybe $35k on LinkedIn/Indeed/ZipRecruiter/etc.
If your job requires a college degree, you should check to see if you were lowballed on pay because I see a lot of jobs "requiring" BA/BS degrees only paying maybe $35k on LinkedIn/Indeed/ZipRecruiter/etc.
Ed Lin@georgetakei that will just encourage the college gateway keeping, which is unnecessary for many jobs.
tessarakt@edlin @georgetakei Of course you can also deduct your Udacity courses or whatever.
Lucifer ☄️@georgetakei For that matter, why is mortgage interest tax-deductible but not student loan interest?
There's a lot of double-standards out there like this, why you lot don't hound legislators relentlessly to explain this shit is beyond me
There's a lot of double-standards out there like this, why you lot don't hound legislators relentlessly to explain this shit is beyond me
Michael@georgetakei hard to argue against this logic
Fr. Marty@georgetakei Of course, this means the loan borrower has to be making enough to have the deduction be of value. Make it a refundable tax credit instead!
Don Gray@georgetakei I’m NOT George Takei, and I support this message.
ChookMother 🇦🇺🦘@georgetakei Where I live you have to be a bona fide business to claim business expenses. A job is not a business unless you're a private contractor.
David Penfold 
@georgetakei
Laudable, but it may perversely make those who earn less after getting a degree the only ones who have to pay.
Laudable, but it may perversely make those who earn less after getting a degree the only ones who have to pay.
✊🏾WiseGuyEddie@georgetakei THIS is a very good point.
Stuart Longland (VK4MSL)#AltText: Screenshot of a post by Melanie D'Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) If your job requires a college degree, you should be able to write-off your student loan payments as a business expense the way CEOs write off their private jets and yachts for their jobs which require neither.
Interestingly enough, we have a scheme here in Australia called HECS (Higher Education Contribution Scheme). The idea being that the government pays for a portion of your education, and the rest was paid for by you as a loan.
If you paid up-front, you got a discount… and at the end, there was no debt.
The scheme was dreamed up and enacted by people who had their education paid for for free by the government -- which was the policy before HECS was introduced.
HardHead@georgetakei well said.
Some kind of ability to write this off is indeed needed. This should apply world-wide from how I see it but certainly in Canada and the USA.
All the best to you. 😀
WarrenTB@georgetakei I second that!
Michael Held@georgetakei it’s chandelier “Porka Miseria!” https://www.ingo-maurer.com/en/products/porca-miseria/ by legendary lighting designer #ingomaurer - he passed in 2019 https://www.dezeen.com/2019/10/22/ingo-maurer-lighting-designer-obituary/
aethervision@georgetakei Cool. Can we talk about why jobs that our grandparents did with high school educations now require degrees?
FairWitness@georgetakei Let's do it.
Tucker Teague@georgetakei I'd vote for you, sir.
Steve's Place@georgetakei The cruelty of not doing this is astounding. Our leaders, the same moralists begging for our votes, treat us like prisoners they are free to abuse. I am sick of our billionaire-run government & its holier-than-thou stupid people making rules for us because some guys in pantaloons & wigs thought black people should only have 3/5 of a vote & added the Electoral College to make damn sure only assholes ejected from Europe would rule here. And I don't even have a parasitic student loan.
WillJohnson@georgetakei yes.😀 but.. 🤷♂️
Anne@georgetakei can the tuition be written off as well as the loan interest? I know it can in Canada.
Magitism@georgetakei Then you still just take the standard deduction anyway
Njoroge Muzungu
Jay@georgetakei this is actually already the case. Not because college is a business expense, but because loan payments aren’t taxable.
the American student loan system is absolute trash, don’t get me wrong, I just thought this was an interesting tidbit.
the American student loan system is absolute trash, don’t get me wrong, I just thought this was an interesting tidbit.
Andrew C. Dingman@georgetakei when I was operating as an independent consultant, my accountant told me I could only write off educational expenses if I could prove that before taking the class I was qualified to do everything I learned to do in the class. WTF?
StefanIn Germany you can actually do this:
Phil Thane ✅@georgetakei I went to college (UK, teacher training) in 1970. No loans, students' local authorities (city or county) paid tuition fees and poor students got a maintenance grant. The government believed that society needed teachers, also medics, scientists etc so society should pay for their education. Then we got Thatcherism/Reaganomics...
Sumukha S@georgetakei The problem is the private jet money is funded by a private company and your college fund is funded by the government. Problem here being decision making. It would make sense only for citizens college fund to be waived off but I don’t think a tax payer will feel comfortable about paying for an immigrant’s college fund.
Nic@georgetakei well - NOT the way CEOs write off things that are not required for business - since a college degree IS required and is presumeable useful to the business
Wayne Young@georgetakei Or ... the government pays for the college tuition up-front. Should cost about the same to the tax payer (up-front cost versus lost tax revenue later on). That way, students never get into debt in the first place.
@georgetakei When I was paying off my loans we at least got to deduct the interest on our personal taxes and didn't have to count the loan as income. Is that no longer the case?
David W. Jones@georgetakei Here's a thought, perhaps worth pursuing?
Consider families (singletons, couples, multiples, with or without children) as entities that produce and improve citizens.
Such entities should be entitled to deduct the costs of said production/improvement.
So costs for utility bills, education, housing, transportation, healthcare - all should be straight deductions. Not subsumed under one-size-fits-all "standard deduction" as the USA has it.