Private ruling: Work-related self-education expenses
Date of advice: 1 December 2025
Published: 27 January 2026
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 20YY
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 20YY

Ruling: Q1: Are you entitled to claim self-education expenses for a 'Property Investment' course? | A1: No.

Relevant facts and circumstances: You are employed in the technology sector. You have a XX% interest in X rental properties with your partner. You and your partner are beneficiaries of a Family Trust, which owns X properties. X properties were available for rent for the ruling period. All rental properties are managed by agents. Your relationship to the tenants is as landlord/tenant. All properties are rented at slightly below market rates to ensure tenancy. You enrolled in an online Property Investment course. Course modules: • Module 1 - Strategy Development: ­ To help define strategy for people to invest in properties. • Module 2 - Suburb Selection: ­ Provides tools and techniques to identify suburbs which would have demand in near and distant future, with low vacancy rates and high rental demand. • Module 3 - Property Selection: ­ Provide tools and inputs to select property types that are sought after in a suburb, e.g. close to schools, good location, safe, close to town centre. Evaluating these would help to invest in properties where tenant demand would be high. • Module 4 - Valuation and Due Diligence: ­ This module teaches how to select great property managers, what qualities to look for, who would make tenants happy and manage the property efficiently. This module teaches how to manage an investment for the highest return and avoid attracting problem tenants - how to vet and select quality rental tenants to keep your property performing well for years to come. • Module 5 - Negotiation: ­ This module is on negotiation, both during buying and also while selecting property managers to sign them up with favourable conditions, how to negotiate lowering of fees. • Module 6 - Renovation and Taxation: ­ This module teaches how to use renovation to increase property value as well as identify those renovations which are most required by tenants. Example: replace fans with aircons, repainting to refresh the house, how to select efficient professionals who can do good repair work to prevent tenant complaints.

Relevant legislative provisions: Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 section 8-1

Reasons for decision: Summary: This edited version of your private ruling will be published on the ATO Legal database after 28 days from the issue date of the private ruling. Section 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997) allows a deduction for all losses and outgoings to the extent to which they are incurred in gaining or producing assessable income, except where the outgoings are of a capital, private or domestic nature, or relate to the earning of exempt income. Taxation Ruling TR 2024/3 discusses the circumstances under which self-education expenses are allowable as a deduction. A deduction is allowable for self-education expenses if a taxpayer's income-earning activities are based on the exercise of a skill or some specific knowledge, and the subject of self-education enables the taxpayer to maintain or improve that skill or knowledge. If the study of a subject of self-education objectively leads to or is likely to lead to an increase in a taxpayer's income from their current income earning activities in the future, a deduction is allowable. Consequently, it is necessary to determine the connection between the particular outgoing and the operations by which the taxpayer more directly gains or produces his or her assessable income. Whether such a connection exists is a question of fact to be determined by reference to all the facts of the particular case. In your case, your main income earning capacity is through other employment. You also have investment properties from which you earn rental income. In order to develop your knowledge on how to buy, sell, and develop properties to maximise returns and minimise losses, you are attended an online Property Investment course. After completion of the course, you gained some specific knowledge which will allow you to enhance your property portfolio and renovate your existing properties to receive higher rental income. The majority of the X modules contained in the property investment course are related to future property investment strategies and practices, only minimally geared towards developing knowledge and skills that could be used in the management of existing investment properties. | Detailed Reasoning - Application to your circumstances: As the course is predominantly geared to assist you in acquiring investment properties and establishing an improved long term investment strategy, the whole of the cost of the course is considered to be a capital outlay. It is incurred at a point too soon to be incidental and relevant in gaining or producing assessable income from future rental property investments. Also, the content of the course is not considered sufficiently relevant to the earning of income from your existing rental property portfolio. Therefore, a deduction is not allowable under section 8-1 of the ITAA 1997.