Professional Development courses (also known as Continuing Professional Development) are a great way for a professionals to keep fully up to date with their industry and sector. Often delivered as short courses in various areas such as Business or Healthcare, Professional Development courses are widely available both online and in person.
Many jobs require employees to take part in Professional Development on a regular basis and often have a budget set aside for exactly this. For example, Doctors and Nurses are required to frequently partake in CPD to ensure their skills and knowledge is up to date. If you work within an industry with a Professional Development requirement, then more often than not, your employer will happily cover the costs of your learning, provided the courses you are looking to study relate to your role and improving your performance.
Even if you don’t work within a role that requires Professional Development, you may be considering taking courses to upskill and improve your abilities. Or if you’re self-employed, you may find that taking courses relating to running your business would be of great help and benefit to you and your company.
Are Professional Development Courses Tax Deductible?
Now if your employer is covering the cost of your learning, then this question doesn’t really apply. Other than making sure that the course you wish to study falls within your employers guidelines.
However, if you are self-employed and opting to study Professional Development Courses then the question of tax and whether the courses are tax deductible is a very important one.
According to the UK Government, enrolling and studying courses for Professional Development are tax deductible for self-employed people. Provided they fall within allowable business expenses for training, that they help you improve the skills and knowledge you use in your business and the courses relate to running your business. So, for example, a refresher course in Business Administration would be allowed, but a course in setting up a new business wouldn’t be.
Once you have found a Professional Development course you would like to study, we would advise you check with your employer or Accountant to make sure that the course would fall into the tax deductible bracket before you enrol and then you can get on with studying your courses without any worries or issues.
If you would like to discuss courses that may be of use and help for your Professional Development, get in touch with our helpful team and they will be more than happy to make suggestions.