Educational Pursuit Congress put an end to deductions for travel that in itself is considered a form of education.
Some teachers use the summer to take educational trips.
French teachers, for example, have been known to jet off to France with the goal of improving their language skills simply by immersing themselves in the culture. Teachers used to be able to deduct the cost of such trips as an educational expense even if the itinerary largely consisted of normal tourist activities, such as going to movies, plays, lectures, museums and visiting French families. But in 1986, Congress put an end to deductions for travel that in itself is considered a form of education. As a result, deductions for travel-related education are now permitted only under very limited circumstances, such as the need to do research that can be performed only at a particular facility. An example would be a scholar of French literature who needs to travel to Paris to do specific library research that can't be done anywhere else.