Self-Education Expenses
Deductions for education expenses that are directly related to your current employment or likely to increase your income in your current role.
Self-education expenses are tax-deductible when the education has a sufficient connection to your current employment. The education must either maintain or improve the skills and knowledge required in your current role, or be likely to result in an increase in your income from your current employment. You cannot claim self-education expenses for education that is designed to get you a new job or open up a new career path.
Deductible self-education expenses include: tuition and course fees, textbooks and professional journals, stationery, student union fees, computer and internet expenses (work-related portion), travel to and from the educational institution (if travelling directly from work), and depreciation of equipment purchased for study. Accommodation and meals may also be deductible if you need to travel away from home overnight for the course.
Note that HELP/HECS repayments are not deductible — they are repayments of a government loan, not an education expense. Similarly, if your employer reimburses your study costs, you cannot claim a deduction for those reimbursed amounts. If you receive a scholarship that covers tuition, you can only claim the excess you personally pay. The ATO has been increasing scrutiny of self-education claims, so ensure you can demonstrate the direct connection between the course and your current work.
How it works
Self-education expenses are deductible when the education has a sufficient connection to your current job — specifically, when it maintains or improves the skills and knowledge your current role requires, or is likely to increase your income in that same role. Education aimed at getting you a new job or opening up an entirely different career path fails this test, even if it's genuinely useful or interesting, because the connection has to run through your existing employment, not a future one.
In practice, deductible costs include tuition and course fees, textbooks and professional journals, stationery, student union fees, the work-related portion of computer and internet expenses, travel directly from work to the educational institution, and depreciation on equipment bought for study. If the course requires you to travel away from home overnight, accommodation and meals during that travel may also be deductible, on the same basis as other work-related travel.
A frequent point of confusion is HELP or HECS repayments — these are not deductible, because they are repayments of a government loan rather than an education expense in themselves, even though the loan originally funded genuinely deductible-type study. Reimbursed costs aren't deductible either — if your employer or a scholarship covers your fees, you can only claim whatever excess you personally paid. The ATO scrutinises this area closely, so being able to demonstrate the direct connection between the course and your current work matters.
Example: deductible tuition versus a non-deductible HECS repayment
An employee studies a postgraduate course that improves the skills used in their current role, paying $3,000 in tuition and $200 in textbooks during the year.
Because the course is funded through HELP, they also make a $1,500 HECS-HELP repayment through their tax return that same year. Only the $3,200 in tuition and textbooks is a self-education deduction — the $1,500 loan repayment is not deductible, since it's a repayment of the loan rather than an education expense.
Related Terms
Taxable Income
Your assessable income minus allowable deductions — the figure used to calculate your income tax.
Income Tax
Tax levied by the federal government on your taxable income, calculated using progressive tax brackets.
HELP/HECS Debt
A government loan for tertiary education tuition fees, repaid through the tax system once your income exceeds the minimum threshold.
Work From Home Deductions
Tax deductions for expenses incurred when working from home, claimable using the fixed rate method or actual cost method.