Is training courses
tax deductible?

Partly. Training that improves skills you already use in your business, keeps you up to date or supports the business, such as bookkeeping, is allowable (GOV.UK). Training to start a new business, or to move into an area not directly related to your current one, is not.

Training is allowable when it keeps your business going as it is. A plumber's gas safety refresher, a hairdresser's colouring update, a web developer's course on a new framework: all allowable. The line is crossed when the course gives you a new trade rather than improving your current one.

Is training courses tax deductible?

The HMRC rule

Training that keeps or improves skills you use in the business is allowable; training to start a new business or move into an unrelated area is not. The rule comes from Training courses, HMRC Business Income Manual BIM47080: staff training and development.

GOV.UK says you can claim for training that helps you improve skills and knowledge you currently use for your business, keep up to date with technology used in your industry, develop new skills and knowledge related to changes in your industry, and develop new skills and knowledge to support your business, including administrative skills. You cannot claim for training that helps you start a new business or expand into new areas not directly related to your industry (training courses). Training for employees is a staff cost (staff expenses).

When you can claim it

• Refresher and update courses in your trade or profession.
• Courses on new technology or regulations in your industry.
• Bookkeeping, marketing and other courses that support your business.
• Training costs for your employees, and related travel, course books and exam fees.

When you cannot

• Training to start a new business or a different trade.
• Courses in an area not directly related to your industry.
• Degrees or qualifications that give you a new profession.
• Hobby courses with no business purpose.

What to claim instead

If you are retraining for a new career, the costs are not allowable against your current business. They may become relevant once the new business starts only if they meet the pre-trading rules, which generally exclude training that gives you the skills to trade in the first place.

How to decide if you can claim it

1. Was it for the business? A cost is only allowable if you incur it wholly and exclusively for the business. If it also serves a personal purpose that cannot be separated, such as clothing that keeps you warm or a meal that keeps you going, HMRC disallows it.
2. Is part of it personal? Where a cost has a business part you can identify, such as the business calls on a phone bill or the business miles in a car, you claim that part and leave the rest out, on a reasonable basis you can explain.
3. Is it a running cost or something you keep? It is a running cost, so on the cash basis it counts when you pay it and on traditional accounting when you incur it. Nothing about it needs spreading over later years.
4. Is there a specific rule? For training courses, the deciding rule is training: training that keeps or improves skills you use in the business is allowable; training to start a new business or move into an unrelated area is not.

Worked example: an electrician’s courses

An electrician spends £450 on the 18th Edition wiring regulations update, £900 on an EV charger installation course, and £1,800 on a plumbing course because he wants to offer bathrooms too. The first two update and extend his electrical work and are allowable: £1,350. Plumbing is a new area of work not directly related to his current one and is not.

Updating versus new skills

The test is not whether you learn something new, but whether it relates to the business you already have. An accountant learning a new tax regime is updating; an accountant training as a solicitor is not. The GOV.UK wording allows new skills related to changes in your industry and skills that support your business, which covers a lot of ground.

Travel and costs around a course

The costs of attending allowable training, such as travel, accommodation for courses away from home, course materials and exam fees, are allowable alongside the course itself. For courses that are not allowable, the related costs are not allowable either.

Training for employees

Training you pay for your employees is a staff cost. Work-related training for employees is also generally free of tax for them. The strict updating test that applies to your own training does not apply in the same way: training employees to do new tasks in your business is part of running it.

Mandatory qualifications

Many trades need regular renewals, such as Gas Safe, first aid, CSCS cards or professional continuing development. These keep you able to do the work you do now, so they are allowable. The cost of first qualifying in a trade, before you trade, is generally not.

Courses, conferences and online learning

The format does not change the answer. An online course, a trade conference, a webinar subscription or a technical book is allowable when it keeps your current skills up to date, and not when it trains you for something new. Conferences often mix learning with networking and hospitality; the ticket is allowable, but separately paid entertainment at the event follows the entertainment rules.

Where it goes

Your own training goes in other business expenses, box 30 of the full self-employment pages; training for employees can go with staff costs in box 19. In Making Tax Digital, use the matching category.

Where it goes on your return and in MTD

On the self-employment pages of your return, the claimable part of training courses belongs in other business expenses (SA103F box 30). The same category is used in Making Tax Digital quarterly updates, so recording it in the right place once keeps both returns consistent.

If your turnover was under £90,000, you can use the short self-employment pages (SA103S), which ask for a single figure for total allowable expenses rather than a box-by-box breakdown, and the full pages let you give just a total in box 31 too. The category still matters for your own records and for Making Tax Digital, where each quarterly update uses the same categories unless you choose to send one consolidated figure.

The accounting basis changes when a cost counts. On the cash basis, the default for sole traders since 2024/25, it counts when you pay it; on traditional accounting, when you incur it, with things you keep claimed through capital allowances.

How much an allowable cost saves

An allowable expense does not come back to you in full: it reduces your profit, so it saves tax at your marginal rate. For a sole trader in England, Wales or Northern Ireland that is 26p in the pound at the basic rate (20% Income Tax plus 6% Class 4 National Insurance) and 42p at the higher rate. The sole trader tax calculator works out the figure for your own profit.

What £1,000 of allowable expense saves a sole trader in 2026/27

• Basic rate (20% + 6%)£260
• Higher rate (40% + 2%)£420
• Additional rate (45% + 2%)£470
• Allowance taper band (60% + 2%)£620

Records to keep

Keep invoices, course outlines and certificates, and a short note of how the training relates to your current business. The note matters most for courses where the link is not obvious from the title.

If Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to you (qualifying income over £50,000 from April 2026, £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028), the records must be digital, and each quarter's costs go into a quarterly update. Check your date with the MTD requirement checker.

Common mistakes

• Claiming training for a new career or business.
• Missing the travel and exam costs of allowable training.
• Claiming the initial qualification you needed to start trading.

Related expenses

This item sits in the other business expenses category, alongside art and collectibles, care home fees, charity donations, clothing and workwear, cryptocurrency, fines and penalties, funeral costs and furniture. The A to Z of expenses answers the same question for every other cost.

If you record your costs in TapTax, each one lands in the HMRC category it belongs to, with its receipt attached, so your quarterly updates and year-end return use the same figures.