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Self-education expenses are deductible when the course you undertake leads to a formal qualification and meets the following conditions:
You cannot claim a deduction for self-education expenses for a course that does not have a sufficient connection to your current employment even though it:
Examples:
You can claim the following expenses in relation to your self-education:
If an expense is partly for your self-education and partly for other purposes, you can only claim the amount that relates to your self-education as a deduction.
You cannot claim the following expenses in relation to your self-education:
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.
Example:
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.
If you'd like to know more about what you can and cannot claim for self-education expenses, H&R Block can help you out. Contact us on 13 23 25 or find an office near you today.
December 2016
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