How to declare a partially reimbursed course?

Brox2010

Hi all,
Over the past tax year I attended a professional course that was partially reimbursed by my employer. However it has only been reimbursed in the following (current) tax year. How should I declare this on my self assessment?

Ex
Course in December 2018: £100 expense
Reimbursed by employer £50 in May 2019

00ec25

the fact the employer failed to cover the full cost makes me wonder if the "course" is wholly, exclusively and necessarily work related?

what was it for? and what do you currently do as a job?
you cannot claim for new qualifications....

Brox2010

Advanced Trauma Life Support course, mandatory under the NHS to progress from an ST2 to ST3 level Doctor

agrinnall

Why aren't they paying all of it then?

Brox2010

Most mandatory courses aren't unfortunately, let alone mandatory affiliations to work for the employer such as to the GMC as well as DRB checks.

My guess would be that I should claim the full amount of the course in the 2018 tax year and declare the 50% reimbursement as 'Expenses payments received and balancing charges' for the 2019 year. Is this correct?

00ec25

Brox2010 wrote: »

Advanced Trauma Life Support course, mandatory under the NHS to progress from an ST2 to ST3 level Doctor

logically therefore your start point should be to read the BMA guidance, you are hardly the first trainee to ask the question...

https://www.bma.org.uk/advice/employment/tax/tax-guidance/tax-relief

Brox2010

logically therefore your start point should be to read the BMA guidance, you are hardly the first trainee to ask the question...

Can't see a section there about splitting expenses and reimbursements across 2 tax years which is my original question. I've filled in numerous self assessment forms and claimed related expenses in the past, but this is a question specifically about how to declare an expense that occurs in one tax year when its (partial) reimbursement occurs in the subsequent year.

agrinnall

As it appears to be an unusual question why not ask HMRC for their guidance?

dori2o

Best thing to do is to ask HMRC.

There are some specific courses that are allowable, but it depends entirely on the basis of your contract with the NHS, even where the course is mandatory it does not automatically mean that it is allowable for tax relief.

Generally, where the course is to enable you to perform the duties of your employment, I.e. it is for betterment, it would usually not be allowable for tax relief.

However, as I said at the top of my post, agreements are in place with HMRC that do allow certain costs based on your current terms of employment.

If it is allowable then you would simply declare the cost that you have incurred on the employment page/section of the tax return.

Or, where you do not complete a tax return and where the total value of your expenses/professional fees is less than £2500 you can submit the details on a p87 form which can be submitted online via the Personal Tax Account.

The tax year applicable would be that in which the cost was incurred. So you would claim the difference between the incurred cost and the reimbursement in 2018/2019.

The reimbursement should not have been taxed and should not be included on your P60.

There are several courses that are fully allowable following agreement between Healthcare unions and HMRC, however, there are also courses where only part of the cost is allowable as the full cost includes manuals or training materials or other elements which are not allowable.

You could try asking your employer why only part of the cost has been reimbursed. This might provide more info.

Ultimately however you would be best to ask HMRC directly.