Claiming back professional subscriptions

If your employment requires that you obtain and maintain membership of a professional organisation, you can make a claim to set the cost against your taxable earnings for income tax purposes. As you would expect there are a few hoops you will need to jump through to claim this relief. They are:

• You must have the professional membership to do your job or if membership helps you with your work.
• You can only claim back subscriptions to organisations approved by HMRC.
• You cannot claim back fees for life membership subscriptions.
• You cannot claim subscriptions you have not paid yourself, for example, your employer has paid them for you.

To see the full list of professional organisations and other learned societies that are approved by the tax office visit this page on the GOV.UK website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/professional-bodies-approved-for-tax-relief-list-3/approved-professional-organisations-and-learned-societies