Teaching is a profession with many benefits and one of the most popular career paths today. There are many advantages to choosing teaching as a career, it gives you a way to share your passion with others, inspire future generations and make a real difference in people’s lives all at the same time. When you take all that into account, it becomes pretty obverse why teaching is such a popular profession doesn’t it?
Plus there’s always the benefit of having a free summer, or if you still want to earn for those weeks there’s usually summer school classes that you can volunteer to teach. Being an educator also gives you a way to change the future of education, teaching is always changing and you can get in on the ground floor to share your ideas.
While the above reasons are all true there’s one other great reason for becoming a teacher that many people probably don’t know about it. And that is the little-known fact that teachers and other educational professionals are entitled to tax relief.
But how does this work, what does it include and how much could you save? Well, let’s take a closer look at teacher’s tax rebate and find out more.
The Teacher’s Tax Rebate
The teacher’s tax rebate is covered in the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) tax relief for employees and means that teachers who pay fees for professional and union memberships, will be able to claim tax relief on them. There is a long list of approved bodies, that are listed on the HMRC website, but many of the big names are covered.
Names like the NUT, NASUWT, ATL, ASCL and many more are all listed and educational professionals of all types are covered. This includes teachers, professors, lecturers, teaching assistants and much more. The teacher’s tax rebate also covers past fees to the now obsolete General Teaching Council of England and its replacement the National College for Teaching and Leadership.
Basically, if you are an approved teaching professional of any kind and need to pay certain expenses through a union or other professional body it is highly likely you will be able to claim tax relief on them. But that’s not the only thing teachers can claim tax relief on.
Uniforms and Equipment
After all, it’s not just the people you are teaching who will sometimes need a uniform, is it? For example, if you teach science and need a lab coat or teach PE and need suitable sporting attire, you will likely be able to claim tax relief on the expense through the teacher’s tax rebate.
Literally, thousands of teachers and other educational professionals miss out on substantial savings because they simply don’t know about them.
Depending on the value of your claim you will need to claim through correspondence or by filling out a self assessment tax return.
There are many great benefits to being a teacher, but be able to save on the expenses is always a nice bonus.
