Courses, conferences, short courses and degrees can all be deductible, but only when the study is tied closely enough to the job you have now. Here's the test the ATO applies, what you can claim, and the HELP trap.
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By the Nomo team · Last reviewed 26 September 2026
A self-education expense is deductible when it has a sufficient connection to your current job. That means the study either maintains or improves the specific skills or knowledge you use in your job now, or is likely to increase your income from that job.
If only some subjects in a course relate to your current job, you may be able to claim the cost of those subjects.
The old rule that cut the first $250 off your claim was removed from 1 July 2022, so you claim from the first dollar.
You can claim the trip from home to your place of study and back, and from work to study and back. If you go from home to study and then on to work, or from work to study and then home, only the first leg counts. The second leg is treated like your ordinary trip to or from work.
Driving your own car? The usual car expense methods apply.
Deferring tuition fees for a full fee-paying place through FEE-HELP doesn't stop them being deductible. But the student contribution for a Commonwealth supported place, paid upfront or through HECS-HELP, isn't deductible. And repayments of any HELP debt, compulsory or voluntary, never are.
From 2026–27, self-education is one of the work expenses covered by the $1,000 standard deduction. Course fees alone can push you past $1,000, and then claiming your actual expenses gives the bigger deduction, with records for all of them. How the $1,000 standard deduction works.
Keep them for five years from when you lodge. More in receipts and record keeping.
Travel to TAFE and the costs of your course have their own examples. See apprentice tax deductions.
Snap the receipt for a course, textbook or laptop the day you pay for it, and the drives to class are recorded like any other work trip. By July the whole claim, with receipts, dates and amounts, is sitting there ready. Nomo is an Australian tax deduction and mileage/work kilometre tracking app for PAYG employees and sole traders.
Course and textbook receipts, read as you go.
One running total across trips and expenses.
Sole traders claim study that relates to their current business as a business expense, in the business section of their return. See sole trader tax deductions.
Yes, if it maintains or improves the skills you use in your current job, or is likely to increase your income from it. Not if it's to get a new job.
Tuition fees for a full fee-paying place are deductible even if you defer them through FEE-HELP. HELP repayments aren't.
No. The student contribution for a Commonwealth supported place isn't deductible, whether you pay upfront or through HECS-HELP.
No. It was removed from 1 July 2022, so you can claim all your allowable self-education expenses.
Yes, from home or work to your place of study and back. If you go on from study to work or home, only the first leg counts.
No. The study has to relate to the job you have when you pay for it.
Study now. Claim it in July.
Receipts and trips kept all year. 14 days free, no card needed.
Start 14-day free trialBy the Nomo team · Last reviewed 26 September 2026. We check these pages against current ATO guidance and update them when the rules change.
General information only, not tax advice. Rules change and everyone’s situation is different, so check ato.gov.au or talk to a registered tax agent about your situation. Nomo is a record keeping app, not a registered tax agent.