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You can claim a deduction for self-education expenses if the education relates to your employment activities.
What are self-education expenses?
Self-education expenses are the costs you incur when you:
- undertake courses at an educational institution (whether or not the courses lead to a formal qualification)
- attend work-related conferences or seminars
- do self-paced learning and study tours (whether within Australia or overseas).
Eligibility to claim self-education expenses
You can claim a deduction for a self-education expense if, at the time you incur the expense, it has a sufficient connection to earning income from your employment activities.
Self-education has a sufficient connection to earning your employment income if it either:
- maintains or improves the specific skills or knowledge you require in your employment activities
- results in, or is likely to result in, an increase in your income from your employment activities.
Your employment activities are the duties and tasks expected of you to perform your job and are usually set out in your duty statement.
You may also be eligible if you undertake a course to maintain your right to receive a taxable bonded scholarship.
When you can’t claim a deduction
You can’t claim a deduction for a self-education expense if, at the time you incur the expenses:
- it doesn’t have a sufficient connection to your employment activities at that time
- you are not employed
- it only relates in a general way to your employment activities at that time – such as undertaking a full-time fashion photography course and working as a casual sales assistant on the weekends
- it enables you to get new employment or change employment – such as moving from employment as a nurse to employment as a doctor.
Keeping records for self-education expenses
You must keep receipts for all self-education expenses you incur, including:
- course fees
- text books
- stationery
- depreciating assets such as computers, laptops and office equipment
- transport and travel expenses.
You also need to be able to explain how the course directly relates to your employment activities at the time you incurred the self-education expense.
If you are claiming a deduction for a depreciating asset that you have used for self-education, you must keep:
- your receipts or invoices that clearly show the cost of the depreciating asset and the date of purchase
- details of how you worked out the effective life of the depreciating asset where you haven’t used the effective life determined by the ATO
- details of how you work out your claim for decline in value, including which method you used and the opening adjustable value
- details of the percentage of time you use the asset for self-education.
