EIM32535 - Other expenses: education and training: where education is part of the duties of the employment

In some cases, attendance at externally provided education courses will be a contractual duty of an employment. It is very unusual for external education to be among the obligatory duties of an employment. The Courts have adopted a restrictive approach to defining the duties of an employment, see EIM31650. In almost all cases you need to distinguish between doing the work of the employment and training or preparing to do that work.

However, there are cases in which the duties of the employment necessarily include external education. Typically these cases will be employments which involve research or an employee who is undertaking a training phase of their career, during which the attendance at external courses represents an intrinsic part of the duties of the employment. Typical cases are illustrated by examples EIM32545and EIM32546.

In the recent case of Revenue & Customs Commissioners v Dr Piu Banerjee ([2010] EWCA Civ. 843), the Court of Appeal accepted that a deduction for training costs incurred by an employee should be allowed if the employee was employed on a training contract where training was an intrinsic contractual duty of the employment (see also EIM32530 & EIM32546) and where any personal benefit would be incidental and not therefore give rise to a dual purpose of the expenditure.

It is important in cases where relief is sought for training costs incurred under the terms of a training contract for the employee to be able to demonstrate, by reference to the contract of employment and all other relevant documentation, that:

• Training is an intrinsic part of the contractual duties of the employment,
• All other duties are being undertaken as part of the training process. They constitute the practical aspects of the training process and are intended to complement the theoretical aspects of the training, which include the externally provided training,
• There is a mandatory requirement for the employee to undertake the external training as an intrinsic part of the duties of the employment and.
• Failure to complete the training and obtain the qualification will mean that the employee will not be able to continue in employment with the employer in the role that would otherwise have been available to them after qualification.

(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)