Taking a course as part of your job? Here’s what you can claim

Most of us want to better ourselves at work and a large part of doing that is equipping yourself with the skills you need to advance your career. The good news is that you can often do that, and claim a tax break on the costs you incurred at the same time.

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Self-education expenses are tax deductible when the course you undertake leads to a formal qualification and has a sufficient connection to your current employment and:

You can’t claim a deduction for self-education expenses for a course that does not have a sufficient connection to your current employment even though it:

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Examples:

1               You are a nurse and choose to undertake a Masters of Nursing in your chosen field. This will allow you to take on additional responsibilities in your job and should move you on to a higher pay scale. This increases your skills in your chosen field of endeavor and is connected to your current income earning activities. You will be able to claim a tax deduction for undertaking the Masters degree, and all related costs (see below).

2               You are a nurse and wish to train to become a doctor. You commence a medical degree. This opens up new income earning opportunities in the future and the cost of the course is incurred too soon to be regarded as being incurred in earning your assessable income. The costs of the medical degree will not be tax deductible.

What can I claim?

You can claim the following expenses in relation to your self-education:

Expenses you can’t claim

You can’t claim the following expenses in relation to your self-education:

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Attending conferences and seminars

Even though attending such an event doesn’t typically generate a formal qualification, you can also claim the cost of attending seminars, conferences or workshops that are sufficiently connected to your work activities. This can include formal education courses provided by professional associations.

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You are a nurse and you attend a two-day professional development conference highlighting the latest advances in your field of nurses. The knowledge you gain from attending this conference will be directly applied in your work when you go back to the hospital where you work. You can claim the costs of attending the course, as well as ancillary costs such as travel, accommodation and meals.

If, as is often the case, the conference or seminar is held somewhere warm and sunny, and you decide to stay on for a short holiday afterwards, you will need to apportion your expenses between conference-related and holiday-related expenditure.