GroundSkill
Apply student-loan, alimony-paid, military-moving, and write-in adjustments
The previous lesson covered the big four adjustments for workers and savers. Three more adjustments decide many returns: interest on student loans, alimony paid under older agreements, and military moving expenses. A final catch-all step gathers the smaller write-in adjustments, such as educator expenses, that share the same above-the-line character. Each step turns on a condition you can test from the intake facts: an income range, an instrument date, an order, or a spending cap.
Interest on a qualified student loan is deductible up to $2,500 a year as an adjustment to income, so the taxpayer claims it whether itemizing or taking the standard deduction. Three conditions shape the amount. The loan must be a qualified education loan the taxpayer is legally obligated to pay. The filing status must be anything except married filing separately, and nobody may claim the taxpayer as a dependent. And modified AGI must sit below the phaseout: between $85,000 and $100,000 for most filers ($170,000 to $200,000 for joint returns), the deduction shrinks along the range and disappears at the top.
The worksheet mechanics follow from those conditions: enter interest paid capped at $2,500, compute MAGI, and phase the capped amount down across the range. Voluntary payments count, and interest reported on Form 1098-E is the starting point rather than the ceiling, since qualifying interest missing from the form may still be deducted.
Maya is single with MAGI of $60,000 and paid $3,100 of qualified student loan interest she is obligated to pay. The $3,100 is capped at $2,500, and her income sits below the $85,000 start of the phaseout, so she deducts the full $2,500 above the line. Had her MAGI been $92,000 instead, the same $2,500 cap would have been phased down across the $85,000 to $100,000 range before she deducted anything.
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However, if your MAGI is less than $100,000 ($200,000 if filing a joint return), you may be allowed a special deduction for paying interest on a student loan (also known as an education loan) used for higher education.View on the source
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This deduction can reduce the amount of your income subject to tax by up to $2,500.View on the source
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Generally, you can claim the deduction if all of the following requirements are met. • Your filing status is any filing status except married filing separately. • No one else is claiming you as a dependent on their tax return. • You are legally obligated to pay interest on a qualified student loan. • You paid interest on a qualified student loan.View on the source
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You can deduct all interest you paid during the year on your student loan, including voluntary payments, until the loan is paid off.View on the source
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The student loan interest deduction is claimed as an adjustment to income. This means you can claim this deduction even if you don’t itemize deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040).View on the source
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The amount of your student loan interest deduction is phased out (gradually reduced) if your MAGI is between $85,000 and $100,000 ($170,00 and $200,000 if you file a joint return). You can’t claim a student loan interest deduction if your MAGI is $100,000 or more ($200,000 or more if you file a joint return).View on the source
Form 1040 Instructions Page 99
Enter the total interest you paid in 2025 on qualified student loans (see the instructions for line 21). Don’t enter more than $2,500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .View on the source
A single filer with MAGI of $70,000 paid $3,200 in interest on a qualified student loan in 2025. No one claims the filer as a dependent. What is the student loan interest deduction before any other adjustment?
Two adjustments turn on a single date or order. For alimony paid, everything follows the instrument date. Payments under a divorce or separation agreement entered into on or before December 31, 2018 may still be deducted, while payments under an instrument executed after 2018 are never deductible by the payer and never includible by the recipient. A pre-2019 instrument modified after 2018 to expressly disqualify the payments joins the post-2018 side. The intake question is therefore concrete: find the agreement date and any disqualifying modification.
For moving expenses, the test has three parts that must all hold: the mover is an active-duty member of the Armed Forces, the move happens because of a military order, and the order reflects a permanent change of station. Civilian relocations and personal moves fail the test no matter how far the household travels. A qualifying move is figured on Form 3903.
A flowchart decides the alimony half of the step:
Chris pays $12,000 under a 2021 separation agreement. The agreement date falls after December 31, 2018, so the entire $12,000 is nondeductible regardless of how closely the payments track the alimony tests. Contrast Officer Park, who pays $10,000 under an unmodified 2015 decree and completes an ordered permanent-change-of-station move: the 2015 agreement sits on the qualifying side of the line, and the ordered station move satisfies the military test, so both adjustments are available.
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If you made payments to or for your spouse or former spouse under a divorce or separation agreement entered into on or before December 31, 2018, you may be able to take this deduction.View on the source
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Amounts paid as alimony or separate maintenance payments under a divorce or separation instrument executed after 2018 won’t be deductible by the payer. Such amounts also won’t be includible in the income of the recipient. The same is true of alimony paid under a divorce or separation instrument executed before 2019 and modified after 2018, if the modification expressly states that the alimony isn’t deductible to the payer or includible in the income of the recipient.View on the source
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You can deduct moving expenses if you are a member of the Armed Forces on active duty and due to a military order you move because of a permanent change of station. Use Tax Topic 455 or see Form 3903.View on the source
A taxpayer pays $6,000 in 2025 to a former spouse under a divorce agreement executed in 2017 that has never been modified. What amount is deductible by the payer?
Beyond the headline adjustments sits a set of smaller write-in and listed adjustments that share the same above-the-line character. The most commonly met is the educator expense deduction: an eligible educator deducts up to $300 of unreimbursed spending on professional development, books, supplies, classroom computer equipment, and similar materials. Supplies for courses of instruction in health or physical education are excluded when they are nonathletic, so those supplies do not count. The cap is $300 per eligible educator per year — $600 on a joint return when both spouses qualify — so spending above the cap is not deductible. An eligible educator is a kindergarten through grade 12 teacher, instructor, counselor, principal, or aide who worked in a school for at least 900 hours during a school year; a single eligible educator deducts up to $300, and a joint return on which both spouses are eligible educators may deduct up to $600. The educator deduction goes on Schedule 1, line 11.
The next line, Schedule 1, line 12, carries the working-expense adjustments of reservists, qualifying performing artists, and fee-basis government officials, figured first on Form 2106. A National Guard or reserve member qualifies only for travel that takes them more than 100 miles from home to perform reserve services, and the adjustment is limited to the federal rates: the regular federal per diem rate for lodging and meals and incidental expenses, the standard mileage rate for car expenses, plus parking fees, ferry fees, and tolls. Reserve travel of 100 miles or less is not an adjustment at all. A qualified performing artist must meet three tests of her own: she performed services in the performing arts as an employee for at least two employers during the year, her allowable performing-arts business expenses are more than 10% of her gross income from the performing arts, and her AGI before deducting the performing-arts expenses is $16,000 or less. What unites the group is placement rather than topic: each reduces gross income toward AGI without any need to itemize, and each is capped or channeled by its own form rather than by a percentage of income.
Ana teaches full time, worked the school year, and spends $420 on qualifying classroom supplies. Her deduction is the $300 cap, claimed as an adjustment, and the extra $120 produces no further benefit. Had Ana instead been a Guard member driving 150 miles to weekend duty, her unreimbursed travel would have been figured on Form 2106 and claimed on Schedule 1, line 12, rather than against the educator cap on line 11, limited to the federal per diem and standard mileage rates plus parking, ferry fees, and tolls. A drill site 80 miles from home would have produced no adjustment.
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If you were an eligible educator in 2025, you can deduct as an adjustment to income up to $300 in unreimbursed qualified expenses you paid or incurred during 2025 for certain professional development courses, and for books, supplies (other than nonathletic supplies for courses of instruction in health or physical education), computer equipment (including related software and services), and other supplementary equipment and materials you use in the classroom.View on the source
Form 1040 Instructions Page 93
Include the following deductions on line 12. • Certain business expenses of National Guard and reserve members who traveled more than 100 miles from home to perform services as a National Guard or reserve member. • Performing-arts-related expenses as a qualified performing artist. • Business expenses of fee-basis state or local government officials. For more details, see Form 2106.View on the source
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1. Performed services in the performing arts as an employee for at least two employers during the tax year,View on the source
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3. Had allowable business expenses attributable to the performing arts of more than 10% of gross income from the performing arts, andView on the source
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4. Had AGI of $16,000 or less before deducting expenses as a performing artist.View on the source
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An eligible educator is a kindergarten through grade 12 teacher, instructor, counselor, principal, or aide who worked in a school for at least 900 hours during a school year.View on the source
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If you were an eligible educator in 2025, you can deduct on line 11 up to $300 of qualified expenses you paid in 2025. If you and your spouse are filing jointly and both of you were eligible educators, the maximum deduction is $600.View on the source
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If you were an eligible educator in 2025, you can deduct on line 11 up to $300 of qualified expenses you paid in 2025.View on the source
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The amount of expenses you can deduct as an adjustment to gross income is limited to the regular federal per diem rate (for lodging and M&IE) and the standard mileage rate (for car expenses) plus any parking fees, ferry fees, and tolls.View on the source
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How to report. If you have reserve-related travel that takes you more than 100 miles from home, you should first complete Form 2106. Then include your expenses for reserve travel over 100 miles from home, up to the federal rate, from Form 2106, line 10, in the total on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 12. You can’t deduct expenses of travel that doesn’t take you more than 100 miles from home as an adjustment to gross income.View on the source
A K-12 teacher who worked 950 hours in the school year paid $500 in 2025 for unreimbursed classroom books and supplies. No reimbursement was received. What is the educator-expense adjustment?
The course asks you questions like these as you learn, brings back the ones you miss, and ends with full-length practice exams.
See the course Or take the free 12-question checkGroundSkill is independently produced and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the IRS. Sources last checked 2026-09-14. Exam preparation, not tax advice.