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however, petitioner has not demonstrated that her trade or
business was business administration before HBS. Rather, the
record reflects that she was qualified to work as an engineer
before HBS and as a marketing executive afterward. Engineering
project management and business administration are not the same
trade or business.7
Finally, petitioner’s counsel relies on Allemeier v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2005-207, where the taxpayer was already
performing sales, marketing, and management functions before
receiving his M.B.A. and continued to do so while studying for
and after receiving it. In that case, we held that the M.B.A.
expenses were not conditions precedent to his employment and also
did not qualify him for a new trade or business. The M.B.A. did
improve his business, marketing, and sales skills, but the M.B.A.
did not qualify him to perform tasks and activities significantly
different from those he could perform before the M.B.A. In
contrast to the taxpayer in Allemeier, petitioner has not
demonstrated her involvement in nonengineering management before
7 In accord with our holding in Schneider v. Commissioner,
T.C. Memo. 1983-753, the assertion that a taxpayer is in the
business of being a manager is too amorphous to meet the
requirements of sec. 1.162-5, Income Tax Regs. A chef manages
her kitchen; a teacher manages her classroom; a consulting
engineer overseeing a factory upgrade manages her project; a vice
president of marketing manages the advertising, packaging,
promotion, and marketing of her company’s products. While each
“manager” manages, administrates, supervises, and plans, each is
certainly engaged in a different trade or business.
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