Originally Posted by
Thedude
You have to be already employed in the field to get those deductions.
So, if you were a CFI, you could deduct your ATP and follow on ratings.
Precisely.
In general you must be employed as a pilot already to deduct costs for additional ratings.
One notable exception is that is that a teacher could deduct the costs of becoming a CFI, because that would be still staying in the field of teaching, but even there the costs for a private license would not be allowed.
Joe