HGV training costs.

Learning a new trade is not allowable as a deduction against profits. Any training required to keep the qualification may be allowable,

It's a shame you didn't ask advice here first. What you could have is started your own Ltd company, put in the appropriate amount of share capital to pay "your" fees from it and then dissolved it. You could then claimed tax relief of the loss of the shares where they had negligible value.

Just an idea - about to be shot down?

Who advised you?

Does it matter, unless you think the advice is wrong?

There's already been one reply telling him that it isn't (wrong), and I agree with that answer. The cost of acquiring skills to obtain a new career are generally not an expense claimable against the income from that career.

tim

It is interesting that you use the word "generally", because it suggests that there may be exceptions. Would you care to expand on that?

Well, logically this is obviously wrong, since it is an expense wholly and exclusively incurred for the purpose of that career.

The word "career" is telling, and needs to be distinguished from "employment". This is the problem here. If you spend money on acquiring a skill, this will be a skill for the life of the career, but of course the career may span several employments, so it doesn't really make sense to claim the expense against the income from the first employment, never mind the first year's income. It would make more sense to amortise the expense over the whole career, and then we have the difficulty of not knowing at the outset how long the career will last. He might work as a lorry driver for 20 years before he retires, or he might jack it in after 2 years when he decides it's not really what he wants after all.

In a way, a skill is like a capital asset, and so it would make sense to be able to claim capital allowances.

One also needs to distinguish between pure training on the one hand (and let's face it, how difficult can it be to drive a lorry?) and all the compliance red tape, the necessary expenses incurred in connection with obtaining (and keeping) certification to permit him to work as a lorry driver. Especially if these need to be renewed every few years, let's say it's four years, then it makes sense to set a quarter of the red tape expenses against each year's income.

I was CMA in case someone came up with a case.

But actually the situation differs if the prospective employer pays for the training. In this case it doesn't generate a BiK, but if you pay for it, it doesn't become tax deductible (AIUI).

All nicely argued. But the revenue don't see it this way, and no-one has successfully challenged the IRs interpretation.

If they did, the costs of my three year's at Uni (course fees, accommodation, beer money!) would be tax deductable

You are right and the previous poster said this.

But the question asked was about the initial (trivial!) part of learing how to manoeuvre the lorry.

They're expensible in the year incurred - they have no resale value.

tim

What if you pay (reimburse) the prospective employer for it, by taking a reduced salary for the first year? Then it does in effect become tax deductible.

Well, no. Beer and accommodation are private costs which you would have incurred even if not studying. Course fees cover your education, they are not job-specific training. I dare say that in principle (I don't know what it is you do) your degree is not strictly a job requirement. It merely opened doors...

I'm not so sure. The OP mentioned thousands of pounds. The trivial part can be learned in a couple of hours of lessons, which can only cost the odd hundred.

The rest must therefore have been fees for guiding the trainee through the hoops necessary to acquire the necessary certificates. :-)

This doesn't help the OP, who has already paid the money and found employment.

But you can do it this way to become a bus driver. However, a friend did the calculations and discovered that it was better to pay for the training yourself (it was about a grand), than sign up to all the contractual nonsense that was required if they paid.

OK, but this isn't true for everything, doctor, pharmacist, optician and nurses (now) all need the relevant degree or they can't work in that profession.

It was you that suggested it was trivial to learn how to manoeuvre a lorry :-)

No idea.

tim

In message , Ronald Raygun writes

Have you ever driven one? (That's a rhetorical question).

Specifically not true for HGV driving too, you *have* to have an HGV licence to drive anything over 7.5 tonnes (or 3.5 tonnes for most younger people).