[ QUOTE ]
If you take out a home equity loan in order to pay for your flight training, then it's tax deductible.
[/ QUOTE ]Negative, Ghostrider. The interest you'd pay is deductible, but not the amount spent on your training. As others have said, flight training is deductible only if it's in furtherance of your occupation, which doesn't necessarily limit it to if you're already a professional pilot. A traveling salesman could deduct flight training expenses (except for the commercial rating) as it would reasonably further his sales business. Air traffic controllers have been successful with the deduction as well, as knowing what the other side is like improves their ability to do their job. The caveat is that the training cannot prepare you for a different job, which is why training for a commercial certificate isn't deductible as it qualifies you for employment as a pilot. That said, if you're already a professional pilot--for example, a CFI--you could deduct the cost of your multiengine rating or MEI/CFII add-on to your flight instructor ticket. Realistically speaking, however, a CFI isn't going to be making the kind of dough where itemizing would make sense.