Learn more, earn more - and maybe claim more!

Richwood Accountants
12 minutes ago
3 min read

Investing in your education can be a smart move for your career and your tax return. But before you start stashing away receipts for textbooks and courses, it’s worth checking if you’re actually eligible to claim those expenses.

Here’s a simple, practical guide on what you can (and can’t) claim.

Firstly, are you eligible to claim?

In short: your course needs to directly relate to your current job – not just to the industry in general, and not something that might help you land a different job later.

Ask yourself these key questions:

- Does your course directly relate to your current employment duties?

- Does it maintain or improve the specific skills you use in your current job?

- Will it likely increase your income in your current role?

If the answer to all three is yes, you’re likely eligible.

Example: When You Can’t Claim

Jane is studying a Bachelor of Nursing. While studying, she works in an aged care home as a carer. While her course is related to the health sector, it doesn’t directly relate to her current role. That means Jane can’t claim her study expenses.

Example: When You Can Claim

Thomas is also studying a Bachelor of Nursing, but he’s working as an enrolled nurse while studying part-time. Since his current job duties are directly related to the course content — and the study improves the skills he uses daily — he can claim his self-education expenses.

When You’re Not Eligible

You can’t claim self-education expenses if:

The course is to help you get a new job or move into a new field
It only loosely relates to your current job, without improving your existing skills
You’re working in a limited or casual role to support your studies, rather than studying to support your work

Basically, if the course is for your future career, not your current one, it’s probably not deductible.

What Expenses Can You Claim?

If you’re eligible, here’s what you might be able to claim:

General Expenses

You can claim general expenses such as:

Tuition fees (if it’s not a Commonwealth-supported place)
Other course, conference or seminar fees
Textbooks and stationery
Student union fees
Student services and amenities fees
Photocopying and printing
Travel between home and your place of education (excluding car expenses, as these are claimed at Motor Vehicle Expenses)
Costs of a dedicated study area at home (e.g. lighting, heating)

Decline in Value

You can claim depreciation on items used for study like:

Computers
Desks
Office chairs

If it costs less than $300, you can claim the full cost straight away. If it costs more than $300, you’ll need to claim it gradually over the item’s effective life.

Repairs

Has your study related equipment (e.g. your laptop) seen better days? Repairs on study related items can be deductible too.

Motor Vehicle Expenses

If you use your car to travel for study (e.g. from work to class), you may be able to claim using either:

The cents-per-kilometre method
Or the logbook method.

You can claim both legs of your trip if you’re travelling

From home to your place of education and back home, or
From work to your place of education and back to work.

But if you’re mixing it up, you can only claim the first part of the journey:

From home to your place of education, then on to work, or
From work to your place of education and then home.

In these cases, the second leg of the trip is considered private, so it’s not deductible.

Bonus tip: if you pay for parking while attending a course, seminar or training at your place of education, you can claim that too.

What You Can’t Claim

Not all education-related costs are deductible. You can’t claim:

Tuition fees paid under HECS-HELP – note that this is different to tuition fees paid under FEE-HELP
General living expenses (e.g. rent, groceries, Uber Eats during cram sessions)
Repayments of your HELP debt
Courses for a new job or new career path

Update: The $250 Reduction Has Been Removed

In the past, you had to reduce your self-education claim by $250 (unless you had certain other expenses to offset it). This rule no longer applies.

As of 1 July 2022, the $250 reduction was officially removed. That means:

No more annoying offset calculations
You can claim the full amount of eligible expenses (assuming you meet the criteria)

This change makes self-education deductions much simpler and more generous than they used to be.

Need Help?

Still not sure what to claim – or how to do it properly? We’ve got your back.

Because let’s face it: you’ve got better things to do than decode tax rules.

** Please note that details in this article are current as at 5 August 2025.

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