Recovering Course Fees from a new employer

markhodge717

Hi, I am starting a new job in January as a Company Accountant and my new employer would like me to complete my final year of AAT. I accepted the new job last Friday and enrolled on my accountancy course this Monday. I need to work 3 months notice before I can leave my current employer.

At the moment I will have to pay my AAT course fees myself though my new employer said they will pay me back, but reduce my salary via a salary sacrifice. I was wondering if they can pay this sum back to me and then claim it as a business expense seeing that I started the course prior to my employment formally starting with them.

Thanks in advance

Mark

coojee

markhodge717 wrote: »

Hi, I am starting a new job in January as a Company Accountant and my new employer would like me to complete my final year of AAT. I accepted the new job last Friday and enrolled on my accountancy course this Monday. I need to work 3 months notice before I can leave my current employer.

At the moment I will have to pay my AAT course fees myself though my new employer said they will pay me back, but reduce my salary via a salary sacrifice. I was wondering if they can pay this sum back to me and then claim it as a business expense seeing that I started the course prior to my employment formally starting with them.

Thanks in advance

Mark

I'm not quite sure what you're asking. If you're asking can they pay you cash now and not reclaim it from you, it's unlikely they'd do that as they've said that they're going to reclaim it via your salary sacrifice. But if they did pay you cash and not reclaim it from you then they could claim it as a business expense but I'd imagine only after you start working for them. If you're asking can they claim a business expense when they recover it via your salary then no they can't as they're not paying for it. Sorry if that's a bit muddled I just can't work out why you're asking the question as the deal on the table is that they're going to reclaim the cost from you so there's no expense to them. Or are you trying to change the deal?

markhodge717

Apologies for the lack of clarity.

I essentially want to know whether they can reimburse me (through expenses) in January when I start working for them, for the fees am paying now.

So I would receive the £2000 fees back outside of payroll, as an employee expense. They would then include this as a staff training expense for the business. Is this allowable considering the expense would have been incurred by me prior to officially starting work for them in January.

coojee

markhodge717 wrote: »

Apologies for the lack of clarity.

I essentially want to know whether they can reimburse me (through expenses) in January when I start working for them, for the fees am paying now.

So I would receive the £2000 fees back outside of payroll, as an employee expense. They would then include this as a staff training expense for the business. Is this allowable considering the expense would have been incurred by me prior to officially starting work for them in January.

Not sure on that one, if they pay it to you after you've started working for them then I would imagine they probably can reclaim it. I was just confused because you mentioned the salary sacrifice where you're still paying for the course not them.