An appeals court rules that a father with a film production business couldn’t deduct his son’s tuition for a filmmaking course.

The taxpayer owned 95% of an LLC that made movies. He paid $28,377 in tuition for his son to take introductory filmmaking college courses. He deducted the payments as training expenses. However, the son wasn’t an employee of the LLC at the time and the business wasn’t even formed at the time the father made the first tuition payment. The U.S. Tax Court found the tuition wasn’t a deductible business expense. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed and upheld the Tax Court’s decision on taxes and penalties against the taxpayer. (Cristo, 7/31/19)