This is quite famous among the individuals who belong to the field of teaching in the UK they spend a lot of money from their earnings to get the desired stuff that they use for the sake of betterment in their profession and job requirements. This possibly could include the teaching stuff like the books to take help for the lecture and other relevant classroom equipment. This results in a way that brings in the discussion about how to claim teacher tax rebates. Because people are inclined toward the fact that there must be some tax relief on this kind of spending.

Moreover, the discussion is more about whether a teacher can claim tax relief for the equipment they buy for the classroom and for the purpose of better lecture delivery. As a beginner this might sound confusing to you, however, this comprehensive guide is based on relevant information that includes everything you must know as a beginner in this profession. This will help you to gather information about what is teachers’ tax rebates, what is the way to apply the teacher tax rebate if you aim to, and how to check the eligibility criteria to claim the tax relief. Let us get further delved into the discussion to know better.

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What Refers to the Teacher Tax Rebate in the UK?

There possibly can be a variety of expenses that you can easily claim for tax relief if you belong to a teaching job. The condition is that the expenses must be incurred for the purpose of the job purely. Whether the expense is related to the qualifying travel expenses, spending money on the laptops and computers, books and journals for the classroom and lectures, replacement PE kit and other special clothing, and the cost of fee that you are paying to the National Education Union that you have chosen as your professional body in the UK.

Furthermore, if you aim to claim teachers’ tax relief, there is always an adjustment made by HMRC in the tax code that you might already own. This will result in a helping manner as you will have to pay less tax in the future. You only have to focus on that the expenses you are incurring for this procedure must belong to the purpose of teaching purely otherwise the claim of tax will not go successful for your case.

Who is Eligible to Claim Tax Relief?

Many of you must be wondering over the thoughts that who is eligible to claim the tax relief. Well in simple words we can say that the teachers who are employed are eligible to claim the tax relief. This does not matter whether you are working through an agency, you will come up with the criteria of eligibility for claiming the tax relief. However, there may be some spending on incurring expenses for the sake of teaching purposes to claim tax relief.

Moreover, job-related expenses must not be reimbursed by the employer or the organisation then you can claim tax relief. In case the expenses are reimbursed then there is no point in claiming as it will not be accepted anyways. In some cases the expenses are reimbursed partially by the organisation, the difference in the amount can be claimed in such a scenario. There are certain criteria that you will have to meet before you plan to claim reimbursement through tax relief. This involves the points mentioned in the following:

The amount of money that you have spent on the expenses for the job purpose is not reimbursed by the employer yet.

1. The job expenses costs are incurred by you.
2. You have the status of being a UK taxpayer.
3. Your earning is more than the amount of personal allowance in the UK.

Teacher Tax Rebate is not Genuine – Why is the Hype?

The ruling on what is eligible to get teacher tax relief is quite strict in the UK. This explains that there are several cases in the UK for teacher tax relief that are not accepted by HMRC because of the eligibility criteria. Many teachers who expected to get the amount reimbursements do not get it as they expect it. According to HMRC the term wholly, exclusively and necessarily for the expenses belonging to the teaching expenses is a must to get the reimbursement of the amount fully.

We can even take the instance of a teacher who is required by the school to spend on classroom equipment like journals, and books, there is a high chance that this kind of spending asked by the employer will be reimbursed easily maybe through the tax relief or by the employer. However, a teacher who is spending money on buying a kind of book that is a resource for teaching is not considered for tax relief as per the ruling of HMRC. This is due to the fact that these books are a resource for a teacher to improve the knowledge and lesson delivery. As to perform the job well such a resource is completely additional.

What is the Required Procedure if I Want to Claim Tax Relief?

Once you are sure that you are eligible to claim the teacher’s tax relief, you will have to complete the P87 form and submit it to HMRC through the online medium. The claim of the previous years must be done within the duration of four years after the relevant tax year is over. In case the amount of the tax relief is more than the figure £2,500 in a particular tax year, you will have to do it while you are doing the self-assessment tax returns.

The Bottom Line

Now that you have gathered a fair amount of information about how to claim teacher tax rebates and how it works in the UK, we can bring the discussion towards wrapping up. It is easy to claim tax relief when you are a teacher and meet the eligibility criteria. However, you will have to be careful about the ruling of HMRC on claiming the tax relief. We hope these few minutes of reading will help you to develop a better understanding of how to claim a teacher tax rebate and how can you handle your case better in the future.

Talk to our best accountants and bookkeepers in the UK at CruseBurke. You will get instant help about what is teacher tax rebate in the UK whether you are running a small or large business.

Disclaimer: The information about the teacher tax rebate provided in this blog includes text and graphics of general nature. It does not intend to disregard any of the professional advice.