Tax relief on training payments

[Deep and fast]

Hi all, my company take £2000 up front then £167 per month from net wages for 5 years to pay for the training received till final line check.

My question is, has anyone successfully gained tax relief from HMRC and if so what document number or case law did you use to back your claim.

Cheers

D and F

[D O Guerrero]

I have successfully claimed tax relief on training costs.
My advice is to see an accountant. If you have one and he can't advise you on that, get a better one.

[hollingworthp]

Yep - 20,000 euros of my salary are tax free in agreement with HMRC which is negotiated directly by my employer. This continues each year until my training costs are fully repaid.

[just an observer]

You might like to look at this page from the Revenue website

Airline pilots: payment of training costs: Milsom & Hinsley v HMRC (SpC569)

[jonnyhock]

Ive been looking on the HMRC website for a while but cant find anything on it, has anyone been able to reclaim tax on the initial costs of training, i.e CPL/IR?

[kenparry]

jonnyhock

There is no provision in the UK for any relief on those costs. There was a scheme briefly, I think around 15-20 years ago, that gave some relevant relief, but it is long gone.

[hollingworthp]

Kenparry - not 100% accurate as it is my integrated course costs that I am being reimbursed for tax free under a ROTE scheme. But my understanding is that this scheme is only open to you if you had a job offer prior to commencement of training that was conditional on successful attainment of CPL/ME IR which obviously excludes the vast majority of self-sponsored guys out there.

[kenparry]

I suggest that being reimbursed tax-free is not the same as trying to get tax relief from HMRC.

[Firestorm]

D&F. As I understand the law (I spoke to the tax office that dealt with my tax when I had the same query) it is not allowed on training that is undertaken as a distinct course as opposed to training that undertaken as part of performing your daily duty. I'm not sure that I explained it very well, but phone your tax office for a full, and definitive explanation.

However during that conversation I was able to ascertain that as I had recently bought a new computer I could claim a proportion of it's value as a business expense, and claim it's depreciation against my tax code. I asked if 75% of the value was considered reasonable, and that was accepted. You might like to ask about that when you phone them up.

They can be quite helpful if you play them right!

[hollingworthp]

Possibly, as I am not handing out my hand for a rebate, but it is included as part of my tax code as provided by HMRC so it is tax-free at source PAYE before the remainder of my salary is taxed as usual.