Edited version of private advice

Authorisation Number: 1052018152057

Date of advice: 11 August 2022

Ruling

Subject: Self-education expenses

Question

Are your self-education expenses an allowable deduction under section 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997)?

Answer

Yes.

Having considered your circumstances and the relevant factors, you are entitled to a deduction for your self-education expenses under section 8-1 of the ITAA 1997.

It is accepted that your degree will maintain or enhance the skills that are required in the performance of your employment. Your self-education expenses are considered to have the relevant connection to your current income earning activities. The study meets the requirements detailed in Taxation Ruling TR 98/9 Income tax: deductibility of self-education expenses incurred by an employee or a person in business.

Self-education expenses you can deduct may be subject to a reduction of up to $250 in accordance with section 82A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936.

This ruling applies for the following periods:

Year ended 30 June 20XX

Year ended 30 June 20XX

Year ended 30 June 20XX

The scheme commences on:

1 July 20XX

Relevant facts and circumstances

You studied a XXXX of XXXX at an educational institution.

You commenced your studies in 20XX and completed in 20XX.

You paid tuition fees through FEE-HELP.

You paid for a computer in 20XX.

You undertook the study to:

•                     expand on and gain formal education and training on data analytics skills you were learning in your employment activities

•                     improve your data analytics skills by working with more complex data problems and learning about predictive (data science) analytics

•                     gain a deeper understanding of the employment activities you complete

Upon the completion of your course, you wanted to work in a role that require more technical skills in R or Python which you had used in previous roles but not as efficiently.

The subjects you undertook were:

•                     Introduction to Databases

•                     Mathematical Foundations for Data Science

•                     Algorithms and Programming Foundations in Python

•                     Data Wrangling

•                     Introductions to Data Science

•                     Statistical Data Modelling

•                     Data Processing for Big Data

•                     Machine Learning

•                     Data Analysis for Semi-Structured Data

When you commenced your course, you were employed as a Digital Optimisation Specialist at Company A. You were employed at Company A during the first X months of your course. In this role, your key duties were:

•                     Reporting on digital marketing campaign performance

•                     Creating dashboards in Adobe Analytics for product launches

•                     Reporting through digital channels through software products

•                     Analysing web data to understand user journey through the company website to give insights on how to optimise the journey

You were then employed as a Digital Insights Analyst at Company B. You were employed at Company B until approximately X months after completing the course.

•                     Reporting through digital assets

•                     Analysing web data to understand gaps in performance and insights on optimising the website and user journey

•                     Creating dashboards to in Adobe Analytics and Tableau to inform executives on digital performance

•                     Implementation of behaviour tracking activity on website and app

At Company A you were responsible for connecting data collected online to product and customer information in databases as well as writing queries in Structured Query Language (SQL) to ensure data quality and validation. At Company B, you connected data in a similar manner and used SQL to answer business problems and build dashboards. The subject 'Introduction to Databases' taught you how to write SQL queries and the theory behind the database structure and how it is set up.

At Company A, you worked with large datasets where the data would often be incomplete - the subject 'Data Wrangling' improved your knowledge of the issues in data and taught you how to identify and resolve them. The subject also taught you about 'regex' which is a way of matching text through patterns which helped you to automate categorising campaigns at Company A. The subject also gave you background knowledge on JSON, a type of semi-structure data, and its structure which improved your ability to implement tracking tags online at Company B.

At Company B, you analysed data in a semi-structured format and provided recommendations based on the analysis. The subject 'Data Analysis for Semi-Structured Data' improved your ability to analyse text data in a methodical and structured way due to the natural language processing and text analytics skills taught in the subject.

At Company B, you worked with the data science teams to identify what models might be suitable for other teams to use to make predications. The knowledge and understanding of predictive models learnt from the subjects 'Statistical Data Modelling' and 'Machine Learning' allowed you to contribute to this.

The knowledge of data structures and data types taught in the subject 'Algorithms and Programming Foundations improved your understanding of different types of data and the importance of how they are dealt. This assisted you in building dashboards in your roles at Company A and Company B, using different data types and selecting the right data set for the program being used. The subject also gave you a good understanding of the basics of coding helping you to implement track tags online at Company B.

You did not receive any financial support from your employers or support such as study/exam leave.

Relevant legislative provisions

Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 section 8-1

Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 section 82A