Tax Rebates For Lecturers and Tutors

Education professionals such as Tutors and Lecturers may claim tax rebates for work-related expenses and obligatory professional fees.

A Tutor or Lecturer may claim a tax rebate for the previous four tax years; it will also mean adjustment of your existing tax code, leading to less tax to pay in future financial years.

Lecturers and Tutors Professional Fees tax relief

As an education professional, you can claim a tax rebate for professional fees into most recognised professional bodies – such as the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and University and College Union (UCU). However, the amount you can claim back will vary, and depends on the agreement between the tax office and the respective professional body.

You shouldn’t need to keep making a claim either, one claim should result in the adjustment of your tax code meaning that going forward into subsequent tax years, the amount of income tax you pay will be automatically adjusted.

Lecturers and Tutors Specialist Clothing tax relief

Those who teach certain subjects might need to purchase specific equipment relevant for the job such as clothing. For example as a PE teacher you can claim tax relief for your sports kit or other things that the school will not provide.

The tax office will expect receipts to support your claims. If you did not keep them as you were not aware that you could claim tax relief, we might still be able to help you. We have successfully negotiated with the tax office a number of instances where receipts were not saved

Washing Specialist Clothing

You can also claim tax relief for cleaning your specialist clothing. Typically, the allowance is worth £60 per tax year and only available for the specialist clothing and uniform – a uniform will be anything that includes your employer’s logo.

Using Your Own Car as a Lecturer of Tutor

In some cases, an educational professional needs to use their personal vehicle for the job. This can generally be claimed if you are required to travel between different sites in the course of your work. HMRC will not rebate the cost of commuting to and from one permanent place of employment as business mileage, but a teacher with specialist skills might be required to travel to different schools.

HMRC will ask for detailed records showing locations, dates and mileage. These records might be timesheets or pay slips if multiple sites are listed on the record. If you have not kept all of your mileage records, then we can still help you. We have a high success rate in securing business mileage tax rebates through our negotiations with HMRC.

Using Your Own Home

Presently, you can claim £4 per week if you have to use your home for work and you won’t need receipts. This allowance is only permissible when working from home is a necessity and not just a convenience. The allowance covers utility costs only (gas and electricity) and not rent or mortgage payments.

You could be eligible for working from home allowance for:

Reference books for lesson planning and research
Absence of fixed hours and where there is a variety of duties
Accommodation and work areas provided by the employer is overcrowded or otherwise unsuitable