Hi,
I would like to know whether Uni Tuition Fees could be a deduction in income tax (for the relevant Financial Year)?
I have seen some related posts and information on the website (https://community.ato.gov.au/s/question/a0J9s000000TS5o/p00246539, https://community.ato.gov.au/s/question/a0J9s0000001Jiv/p00052119), but the answer was not clear to me.
The program that I studied was directly relevant to my jobs (can even say it's the direct and only reason that I got my part-time work, and the later full-time work!). I have always thought i could claim deduction for tax for the last financial year when I was still studying.
However, I received the ATO sms that there's an issue in my return and had to call the Audit team. The lady asked whether I was on a student visa for the programme (which the answer was yes) and whether this was the first course I studied (I answered yes, but now also wonder whether this is what she meant to ask - it was a two year programme, so it's the same programme but for different courses each semester).
The lady said it is not tax-deductible since studying was a visa condition, and suggested that she remove this from my return, and I could submit an amendment if I want after the revised return was first processed.
I did not question the validity of that being non-tax-deductible since I do not have any knowledge of it, but after some research, it seems that tuition could actually be used as work-related expense disregarding whether the education was a vision condition.
Greatly appreciate any help! Not a huge amount of money from the difference, but this make a big difference for me since I just got started. Thanks :)