You register for a training course and want to enter purchase invoices in your accounts.
Perhaps you hesitate to bring it in effectively because it does not correspond one-to-one with your activities? For example, you are taking the training mainly to expand your current activities.
Can you then bring this expense in for your taxes or will it be a problem in case of tax audit?
What is the principle from the training?
No special rules apply to the deduction of training and study expenses. So you have to look at the same general rule, which actually always counts when you start entering expenses.
Putting that general rule into jargon, it boils down to: Your expenses are deductible in your accounts if you can prove that you paid them to obtain or maintain taxable income.
What does the taxman say?
The latter takes a slightly stricter view. He accepts that you will contribute training, but only if there is a clear, direct link between the training costs and your current activities.
He can therefore refuse a training cost if it is related to a future activity, an activity you plan to engage in in the future. In other words, upskilling for your current activity in your accounts is possible, but retraining is not.
Example!
You are working as a web developer: if you take a course on software, there is no discussion, that expense is deductible.
Now suppose you also want to bring in purchase invoices from a cooking course, the taxman will obviously have a problem with that. Even if the intention is to get a diploma as a chef and then open a restaurant.
So can I not bring in that course at all?
Sure you can, but just make sure there is already a link between the training and your activities. For example, make sure that some steps have already been taken towards starting up a restaurant, for example, think initially about updating your activities in the CBE even before you start the cooking course.
Tip:
Don’t go for a complete switch of activities, but rather an expansion of them. Then make sure you can demonstrate a link between the course and your current activities.
Say you are going to take Italian lessons as a web developer. Are you taking that course then because you are going on holiday to Italy soon? Then you obviously cannot include that training cost in your accounts.
However, if you have a lot of Italian customers and therefore follow a language course to be able to communicate better with them, then you can of course justify contributing the cost. You can then easily refer to your Italian customers during tax audits.
