EIM70790 - Tax treatment of teachers and academics: claims for capital allowances on computers, word-processors and similar items
Section 36 CAA 2001
The guidance on claims for capital allowances by employees at
EIM36500 onwards applies to teachers and
academics as it does to all other employees. The paragraphs which
follow amplify but do not replace that guidance. In cases of doubt
or difficulty, refer to EIM36500 onwards as well as the following
paragraphs.
Virtually all teachers and lecturers have access to
stationery, and to duplicating and appropriate secretarial
facilities, provided by their employer. Consequently the purchase
by individuals of their own equipment to store, print or reproduce
items such as class records, resource material or lesson notes is
unlikely to meet the conditions set out at
EIM36540. Although a teacher may feel
that the school or college facilities are inadequate, and that
possession of their own equipment makes them more effective in
their job, the critical question is whether another teacher could
carry out the duties (in the sense of fulfilling the contractual
requirements) with what the employer provides.
The position is somewhat different where the teacher or
lecturer concerned is under a contractual obligation to undertake
academic research at degree level or above. In such cases the
academic frequently has not only a degree of choice as to the
subject of the research but also as to the way in which it is
pursued (see the penultimate paragraph of
EIM36550). His or her employer is much
less likely to make provision for secretarial or other assistance
in carrying out the research and, where the onus is on the employee
to supply what is needed, capital allowances may be given in the
following circumstances:
- where the equipment purchased merely fulfils tasks previously carried out by more laborious means (for example, storage of information previously held on index cards), or
- where the research itself intrinsically requires the equipment (for example computer analysis of statistics).
If, in addition to its use in connection with research, the equipment is also used in connection with teaching duties or for private purposes, the allowance due may be apportioned (see EIM36570).
