Many professionals such as accountants, lawyers and health professionals are required to make a subscription to a professional body or learned society. HMRC have recently published an updated list of the organisations that they will accept as valid professional bodies. This list is updated from time to time and a recent update lists all approved bodies as at 12 November 2015.
A statutory fee or contribution shown in the list is an allowable expense where employees:
- pay this out of their earnings from an employment and
- are required to pay this as a statutory condition of following their employment.
An annual subscription to a body shown in the list as approved by HMRC is allowable where:
- employees pay this out of their earnings from an employment and
- the activities of the body are directly relevant to the employment.
The activities of a body are directly relevant to an employment where the performance of the duties of that employment:
- is directly affected by the knowledge concerned or involves the exercise of the profession concerned.
Source: HM Revenue & Customs
