When a body is approved by HMRC, it is asked to notify its
members of the circumstances in which they are entitled to a
deduction. The members may include the deduction on their return
forms, or in a letter giving all the information needed, or on form
P358.
Normally it will be apparent from the nature of the person's
employment whether the fee or contribution is paid as a statutory
condition of exercising the employment, or whether membership of
the approved body to which the annual subscription is paid is
relevant to the employment.
Where membership does not seem directly relevant you should
consider whether the nature of the duties is such that a deduction
is nevertheless allowable. A professional person with management
responsibilities, for example a head teacher or an engineer in
charge of a section of a factory, might well be entitled both to a
deduction for a subscription to his appropriate professional body
and to an approved society concerned with management skills.
Time should not be spent in making enquiries regarding the
relevance of a small subscription unless membership of the body
appears to be quite unrelated to the employment.
A deduction may not be given in respect of:
Where an individual is also chargeable to income tax on Trading Income as a self-employed person, a deduction should not be allowed both in computing the amount chargeable as Trading Income and from employment income for the same fee, contribution or subscription.
