TelBoy

We all know that our great HMRC will not give tax allowances against initial training, but consider the following.You already have a CPL and FI and are a self employed instructor.If you then took multi training and Instrument rating to allow you to instruct ME and IR surley this would be a business expense and tax deductable?Any thoughts greatfully received.

duveldrinker

under belgian tax law: yes.

Mickey Kaye

What about cost involved in renewing a CPL and FI rating. check rides and seminar. Would i be correct in thinking that these are a business expense?

foxmoth

As a self employed instructor I think you would be OK as long as you then offset these costs against earnings from this type of instructing, you can show this as a loss in your accounts for this area and would be able to put this loss against your overall profit, but if you did not show you had used the ratings once gained you could be on shaky ground. Please note though, I am not a tax accountant so this is only an opinion from someone in the business.

hugh flung_dung

The bottom line of a complicated set of rules seems to be that you can get credit for the cost of maintaining necessary skills and qualifications but not for gaining them in the first place. So, all renewals/revals are allowable but the initial courses are not.

This is from advice I got 12 years ago from Mrs HFD (an Accountant)

HFD

Arctic Circle

It depends on which country you are in. I deducted all training after a basic CPL and FI rating, this being allowed as the extra qualifications would increase my prospects of earning a living and further my career. From what I have understood, the UK is one of the more difficult countries to do this.

Sky Bear

My accountant started a Ltd. co for me in the aviation business. It then employed myself and the good wife as staff. She was the office manager and claimed her allowances each year. I was sent on training programs having already got a PPL. Training involved hour building, ATPL groundschool and exams, AFI rating couple of extra type ratings and CPL course and tests. This was all paid for by capital invested as directors loans.

Once finished I then was lucky enough to gain employment Instructing as an instructor supplied by my Ltd. company to local training schools. All money earned during the first couple of years went in to the company and was then written down as capital loan repayment (to me). I paid no tax, claimed all the VAT back and had all my training for free (well nearly had to work for a couple of years to pay it off). As an added bonus we also had 5 years of allowances for my wife.

All of this was 17+ years ago and long since signed off by the revenue and for all I know the rules have changed now, but it worked for me back then. Still need the money up front first though, no way out of that.