CA ANZ has lodged a submission on the Treasury discussion paper, Education and training expense deductions for individuals. CA ANZ is supportive of improving the accessibility of education and training. However, a new deduction for education and training expenses for upskilling or retraining is not the most effective or efficient way of delivering better access to education and training.

 Providing a tax deduction for education and training provides limited or no benefits to those who need to attain skills or retrain due to educational disadvantage, occupational disruption, unemployment, underemployment, and those working in under-valued or lowly paid occupations. To better include these individuals, assistance in the form of grants/scholarships or lower education costs would be more targeted and less costly.  

Designing deduction eligibility is also problematic for reasons outlined in the submission.