Employee Expenses - University Expenses

Ian_H_3

I am an employee, studying part time for a Msc in Engineering, and have a question RE my expenses in relation to the course. I believe my contract of employment may be relevant to this; it states the company will 'support me and pay course and examination fees' and that i 'will be liable for the costs if I leave my employment before completing the course'.

I have two tax related questions. Firstly, I am looking to buy a laptop (est cost £1000) for the course; there is a lot of work involved and it is not possible to complete this using my office PC or the university PC's (limited time on campus due to part time attendance) - can I make a case for this as an employee expense in relation to tax and therefore claim tax relief on it? Secondly can I also claim tax relief for my university expenses in relation to rail travel there and back and subsistence whilst attending?

Thanks in advance!

Savvy_Sue

Ian_H wrote: »

I am an employee, studying part time for a Msc in Engineering, and have a question RE my expenses in relation to the course. I believe my contract of employment may be relevant to this; it states the company will 'support me and pay course and examination fees' and that i 'will be liable for the costs if I leave my employment before completing the course'.

I have two tax related questions. Firstly, I am looking to buy a laptop (est cost £1000) for the course; there is a lot of work involved and it is not possible to complete this using my office PC or the university PC's (limited time on campus due to part time attendance) - can I make a case for this as an employee expense in relation to tax and therefore claim tax relief on it? Secondly can I also claim tax relief for my university expenses in relation to rail travel there and back and subsistence whilst attending?

Thanks in advance!

Welcome.

I think the answer is no to both, I'm afraid. If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me!

Debt_Free_Chick

Agree with Savvy Sue.

In addition £1,000 is an extortionate amount to pay for a laptop these days

Ian_H_3

Sue,

What makes you think it would be a no go?

ceeforcat

Quite simply - the laptop fails the 'wholly, necessarily and exclusively' test for an allowable employee expense. Unfortunately, the exorbitant cost of the laptop, which suggests that its usage may not be limited to coursework, lends considerable weight towards failing this test.

Ian_H_3

Thanks for the reply, I have been mulling over the 'wholly necessary' test myself. Consider that the Msc I am studying is part time, ie only 6 hours per week on campus. The course requires 300 hours of private study, as stated in the guidance. Could it really be considered practical to spend this amount of time at uni, bearing in mind I work full time?

With regard to the cost, I believe it is irrelevant. There are sections of the tax manual that allude to the fact that you shouldn't be punished for buying a more expensive piece of equipment than the next man!

Appreciate the advice so far, thanks all..

CLAPTON

Is the course you are doing a condition of employment?

Ian_H_3

Clapton, I think you are looking at this along the same lines as me. The job requires me to gain chartered engineer status, in order to do this I need to do the study.

My contract of employment is a bit wooly, I have briefly summarised a few bits at the start of my first post. I'm sure I could get a letter from my employers to clarify that I am required to attend if it would help my cause.

I'd welcome your thoughts on this...

ceeforcat

Will the laptop use wholly, exclusively and necessarily for business? Yes or No? There is no grey area at HMRC.
As an employee, you can only make a claim for tax relief if the expenditure meets the above test. The key word is "necessarily". In other words, is it absolutely essential that you MUST have a laptop in order to fulfill your employment duties and is it obligatory for you to provide this item yourself?

If this is just an option being proposed by your employer than it will fail the "necessarily" test.

I suspect that you will not be happy with this answer and may even pursue the claim anyway - that is your risk to take

Ian_H_3

Ceeforcat - I can see from your closing statement that you can tell I am super-keen to make this happen! However, please don't mistake this for me not listening to the advice given; I am very grateful for all opinions and give them all equal consideration, whether they are what I want to hear or not. I'm not going to go ahead and put in a claim if the consensus is that its a waste of time.

I didnt want to post my view at the start for fear of influencing others, but my reading of it is like this: Am I contractually obliged to study, yes I am. Is there a genuine need, yes there is - I cannot possibly put the hours in at locations away from home. Have I other options, not that I can see, my employer certainly won't cough up regardless of cost. Can I prove 'wholly and exclusively', probably not, but how can it be proved either way. I have a tablet which I use to browse the net at home, I have no need for a pc, however HMRC aren't to know this.

Finally, my employer has offered to put the machine through the company accounts to save me VAT, thus, as I understand it, giving me the same saving? (if my grasp of tax is correct).

Again, all advice is appreciated and though about - i'm not going to plough ahead regardless, much as I'd like to!

ceeforcat

Finally, my employer has offered to put the machine through the company accounts to save me VAT, thus, as I understand it, giving me the same saving? (if my grasp of tax is correct).

Fair enough:
this paragraph would now worry me though - you could be liable to a BIK - have a read of this!


http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/eim21613.htm