Photography Course: Expensable?

**LisaContractorUmbrella** · 19 March 2013, 08:16

IMHO you are on shaky ground as you don't have an existing photography business so you can't really use the wholly and exclusively argument, only in potentia and I am not sure HMR&C would wear it

**northernladuk** · 19 March 2013, 10:47

Would I be right in guessing you already have a camera because you use it for personal stuff? Which kinda answers your question I think.

**eek** · 19 March 2013, 10:51

What photography course is going to cost enough to warranty trying to put it through the company.

The tax savings are minimal so pay for it yourself.

**Wanderer** · 19 March 2013, 11:23

Originally posted by Malcolm Buggeridge View Post

photography can be argued to be relevant to its primary area of business.

Am I on shaky ground here or do you see no problem with expensing this?

Why not go and do the course, get a receipt/invoice for it and file them away. At the end of your company year, review your expenses and decide if the photography part of the business has taken off or if it turned out to be more of a hobby. If it takes off then claim it, if not then don't but don't let the tax treatment stop you doing something you want to do.

Simples.

**TheFaQQer** · 19 March 2013, 11:46

It's adding skills with no business benefit, so no.

**formant** · 19 March 2013, 11:46

I've done a fair bit of paid photography work over the past 5 or 6 years to supplement my permie income, only closed down that income stream when I started contracting last year (just no more need for the extra cash, and wanted to have more time off).

Paid online training courses are a huge waste of time and money. If you really want to learn, try and find a hands-on, in-person course. Or even better, approach a local professional (someone who's both good at what they do and not new to training) and pay them for one-on-one tutoring.

Otherwise, there are so many useful, free, tutorials on YouTube, you're not going to get anything better out of a paid online-course.

I think you may have issues expensing it unless it's say packshots/product photography and you're developing online retail websites or something. You'd need a pretty direct link anyway, nothing ambiguous.

**BolshieBastard** · 19 March 2013, 11:51

Bung it through. All you have to do is weigh up the odds of being investigated against not then make your decision based on that.

**Malcolm Buggeridge** · 19 March 2013, 12:50

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

Would I be right in guessing you already have a camera because you use it for personal stuff? Which kinda answers your question I think.

No, I got one and expensed it...

Originally posted by eek View Post

What photography course is going to cost enough to warranty trying to put it through the company.

The tax savings are minimal so pay for it yourself.

Its not so much the savings. I will expense everything I can to help keep me below the higher rate threshold

Originally posted by formant View Post

Paid online training courses are a huge waste of time and money. If you really want to learn, try and find a hands-on, in-person course. Or even better, approach a local professional (someone who's both good at what they do and not new to training) and pay them for one-on-one tutoring.

I think I'd benefit from the structure of a course. They also have tutors to give feedback on progress. If they do as they claim, the ones I've looked at shouldn't be a waste of money.

**LisaContractorUmbrella** · 19 March 2013, 12:53

[QUOTE=Malcolm Buggeridge;1716250]No, I got one and expensed it...

If you were happy to expense the camera (even though it could not be realistically considered a business expense) why are you worrying about expensing the course?

Photography Course: Expensable?