Sometime ago the cost of an MBA could be deducted, as illustrated here.
A man worked as an investment analyst and owned technology ventures. He left his job to get an MBA degree and deducted the cost on Schedule A as an unreimbursed employee business expense subject to the 2%-of-AGI threshold.
While in graduate school and afterwards, he worked as a CEO for a software firm he founded with fellow students. He argued that he qualified for the deduction because he was an entrepreneur before, during and after his MBA degree.
The court agreed that his courses improved his current skill set and didn’t qualify him for a new trade, so he can write off the cost of the degree.
Zuo, TC Bench Opinion
Note that current law allows only self-employed people to take this write-off, provided they are otherwise eligible. The 2017 tax reform law suspended the deduction through 2025 for unreimbursed employee business expenses claimed on Schedule A.