Business expenses not deductible as personal commitment

Expenditure towards training courses may be used for income tax relief purposes provided particular conditions should be satisfied. The expenditure has to go towards (a) training course(s) aimed at enabling the trainee to secure a “Box 1” income. The course(s) in question may either teach new professional skills or expertise or enable the trainee to preserve his or her current level of knowledge and skills.

A court case revolved around the question as to whether a businessman should be allowed to seek relief for the expenses incurred by his wife in aid of a training programme. The wife was an entrepreneur in her own right and the curriculum had related to her keeping her professional knowledge and skills up to standard. As the training expenses in question therefore qualified as a business expense to be docked from the wife’s business earnings, it followed that the husband had no business presenting them as “training expenses”. The husband, contrary to his own contention, lacked discretionary powers in the matter. This was not detracted from by the mere consideration that the wife’s earnings, once her tax relief for the self-employed had been applied, had turned out too low for her to derive any joy from the deductibility of her training expenses.

Dutch version: Kosten onderneming niet aftrekbaar als persoonlijke verplichting