You can claim a self-education expenses tax deduction when your study has a sufficient connection to your current job. The ATO's test is that the course either maintains or improves the specific skills you need for your current employment, or is likely to increase your income from that employment. If it passes, you can claim course fees, textbooks, stationery, some travel, and depreciation (decline in value) on equipment like a laptop. Since 1 July 2022 there is no $250 reduction, so you claim from the first dollar. You cannot claim HECS-HELP fees for a Commonwealth supported place, or any repayments on study loans. Source: ATO, Self-education expenses.
Not sure whether your course qualifies? Run it through our deduction finder and get a myTax transfer report showing exactly where each amount goes in your return.
Who can claim self-education expenses
The ATO applies one test, set out in ruling TR 2024/3: at the time you incur the expense, the study must have a sufficient connection to earning income from your current employment. That is satisfied if the course either:
- maintains or improves the specific skills or knowledge you need for your current duties, or
- results in, or is likely to result in, an increase in income from your current employment.
The connection is to what you actually do now, not your industry in general. An enrolled nurse studying a Bachelor of Nursing can claim, because the degree deepens the skills she already uses. A teacher's aide studying a Bachelor of Education cannot, because the degree opens the door to new employment as a teacher rather than improving her current aide duties. Both examples come straight from the ATO's guidance.
Timing matters too. Each expense is tested when you incur it. If you were employed when semester one fees fell due but had been made redundant by semester two, only semester one is deductible.
Course fees: what counts and when you incur them
Course fees are deductible if you are in a full fee-paying place and the course passes the connection test. This includes fees you defer through a FEE-HELP loan or a VET Student Loan (VSL). The ATO treats the fee as incurred on the census date (the deadline after which you owe the fee even if you withdraw), not when you actually repay the loan.
That distinction does a lot of work. Say your course has a sufficient connection to your job and each subject costs $10,000, deferred to FEE-HELP. You claim the $10,000 in the year the census date falls, even though you have not paid a cent yet. But you can never claim the FEE-HELP repayments themselves, whether compulsory or voluntary, because that would be claiming the same fee twice.
What you cannot claim on the fees side:
- tuition fees for a Commonwealth supported place, whether paid upfront or through HECS-HELP
- repayments on any study loan (HELP, FEE-HELP, HECS-HELP, VSL, Student Financial Supplement Scheme, Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans)
- fees your employer pays or reimburses.
The $250 rule repeal: claim from the first dollar
For decades, section 82A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 forced you to knock $250 off your allowable self-education expenses before claiming. That section was repealed with effect from 1 July 2022, and the change is baked into TR 2024/3. The ATO's position is plain: for expenses incurred from 1 July 2022, "you no longer need to reduce your allowable expenses by $250" (ATO, Self-education reduction in expenses).
The old rule only matters now if you are amending a 2021-22 or earlier return. For every current-year claim, every eligible dollar is deductible from dollar one.
Equipment: immediate deduction or depreciation, with a worked example
Study equipment splits into two methods depending on cost:
| Cost $300 or less | Cost over $300 | |
|---|---|---|
| How you claim | Full cost in the year of purchase | Decline in value over the asset's effective life |
| Private use | Apportion by study-use percentage | Apportion by study-use percentage |
| Part-year purchase | No adjustment needed | Reduced for days held |
Worked example, based on the ATO's own figures. Danika buys a $229 desk and a $1,400 laptop on 1 February, using both 80 per cent for study connected to her job.
- Desk: under the $300 threshold, so she claims $229 x 80% = $183.20 immediately.
- Laptop: over $300, so it depreciates. Using the diminishing value method for 150 days held, year one decline in value is $575.33, and 80 per cent of that is $460.26. Year two gives her the remaining $659.74, after which the laptop is written off.
Her first-year equipment claim is $643.46, with another $659.74 the following year. Want your own numbers? Our calculators handle the depreciation maths and the study-use split for you.
Travel: the trips you can and cannot claim
You can claim the full return trip between home and your place of education, and between work and your place of education. If you chain the trips (home to class to work, or work to class to home), only the first leg is deductible; the second leg is private. Parking at your place of education is deductible too. Accommodation and meals are only claimable when the study requires you to be temporarily away from home overnight, such as an interstate conference.
Records for self-education expenses: what the ATO expects
You must keep written evidence (receipts or invoices) for every expense you claim: course fees, textbooks, stationery, transport, travel and equipment. For depreciating assets, keep the purchase receipt showing cost and date, your calculation method, and a record of the percentage of time you use the asset for study. You also need to be able to explain how the course related to your job at the time you incurred each expense, so keep your duty statement and course outline together. The ATO suggests its myDeductions app; whatever you use, the records need to survive until at least five years after you lodge.
What you cannot claim
- Study that only relates to your job in a general way, or that gets you a new job
- Any expense incurred while you were not employed
- HECS-HELP fees for Commonwealth supported places, and all study loan repayments
- Anything your employer paid for or reimbursed
- Accommodation and meals when you were not required to stay away overnight
- Expenses when your only income is a rebatable government payment such as Austudy
FAQs
Can I claim my HECS-HELP repayments as a tax deduction?
No. Repayments of study loans (HELP, HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP, VSL and similar) are never deductible. What can be deductible is the underlying course fee itself, but only for full fee-paying places where the course connects to your current job.
Does the $250 reduction still apply to self-education expenses?
No. The $250 rule was repealed for expenses incurred from 1 July 2022. It only applies if you are fixing up a 2021-22 or earlier return.
Can I claim a course that helps me get a promotion?
Often yes. If the course maintains or improves skills you use in your current role, or is likely to increase your income from that role (a certification your employer pays more for, for example), it passes the test. A course that qualifies you for a different job entirely does not.
Can I claim self-education expenses if I'm studying full time and not working?
No. There has to be current employment income the study connects to at the time you incur each expense. If your only income is a rebatable benefit like Austudy, no deduction is available.
My employer paid half my course fees. Can I claim the rest?
Yes, if the course qualifies. You claim only the portion you actually incurred yourself, never the part your employer paid or reimbursed.
Where do self-education expenses go in myTax?
Work-related self-education expenses have their own label in the deductions section. Use our deduction finder to check each expense and generate a myTax transfer report, and if you want to see what the refund difference looks like against your salary, run your figures through the pay calculator.
Sources: ATO, Self-education expenses (updated 8 June 2026); ATO, Self-education reduction in expenses; TR 2024/3, Income tax: deductibility of self-education expenses incurred by an individual.