Examinations, courses and professional subscriptions

Course or exam fees

You may pay course and exam fees for your employee, or repay them for the fees they have already paid. This is not taxable if the course or exam is relevant to your business.

A course is relevant to your business if it:

• allows your employees to gain knowledge necessary for their role
• helps your employees perform their current or future work duties better.

You may pay for a course for an employee where the course is not relevant to your business. If you do, this is taxable.

Repayment of Expenses

You may pay the expenses of an employee or repay them for expenses they incurred in studying for a course. This is not taxable if both the following apply to the course:

• it is relevant to your business
• it is necessary for your employee to perform their work duties.

Examination awards

You may pay exam awards to your employee. This payment is taxable. The only exception to this is if the award is not more than the reasonable expenses incurred by an employee, during the course of their study, which have not been repaid by the employer.

Special increments

You may give an employee a special pay increment for passing an examination or to recognise another achievement. Any increase in pay is taxable.

Professional subscriptions

If you pay a subscription to a professional body for an employee, that payment is taxable. However, in limited and restricted circumstances, you may pay professional subscriptions without deduction of tax.

You can pay subscriptions to a professional body for an employee without deduction of tax where:

• there is a legal requirement for membership of a professional body
• there is a requirement for a practising certificate or licence.

You can also pay the subscription without deduction of tax if all of the following apply:

• the duties of your employee require them to be a member of a professional body
• your employee exercises those duties
• membership of the professional body is an indispensable condition of the tenure of the employment.