MBA Tax Breaks ?

Maybe a tax question (please move if deemed so).

Thinking of starting the UCD Executive MBA next month. That's €7,500k in '10, €15,000k in '11 and €7,500k in '12. Am I right in saying that I can only claim up to €1,000k as a tax reclaim (20% of the €5,000k ceiling) in any one year ? €3k out of €30k doesn't make it cheap by any stretch.

(anyone with experience, thoughts on the UCD MBA, feel free to add).

That sounds about right - if you are self assessed, or complete a form 12 and can demonstrate that the education was an essential requirement for you work then you may be able to claim some additional funds but I think this is unlikely to be the case with an MBA, more likely for a specialist course (i.e. I don't think you can convincingly argue that an MBA is an essential requirement)

I would advise that you go to the MBA open days and take a look around at the other people who are comtemplating applying - most of the value in the MBA is in the contacts and the quality of discussion you can have with your classmates (eg in the second year of the course many of the "lectures" are actually 50% - 70% taken up with class discussions and presentation of assignments), if you are impressed with the people around you and think you would learn from them then it should have some value.

Having done a lot of recruitment over the last couple of years as a senior manager in a large bank, I wouldn't put more value on an MBA than a general business masters, and if I was recruiting for a specialist role I would place more value on relevent specialist qualifications. The exception for me would be where someone has a very specialist undergrad degree (anything that is likely to attract the label of "nerd" or "supernerd"!), and completing an MBA demonstates the person's adaptability and social skills