The Australian Institute of Architects welcomes the announcement made on Wednesday 6 November by the Treasurer, the Honourable Joe Hockey MP to permanently abolish the $2000 cap on tax deductions for self-education expenses.

Institute CEO, David Parken, said, ‘This is very good news. The cap was ill-conceived and would have hurt many sectors of the economy through loss of productivity and many professionals no longer being able to afford to keep their skills up to date.’

The proposal to cap the deduction for work related education expenses was announced in April by the former federal Treasurer, the Hon Wayne Swan, MP, with the cap set to be introduced from 1 July 2014.

Following this, the Institute aligned with Scrap the Cap, an alliance of over 70 organisations covering a broad range of industry and professional organisations to lobby against its introduction.

Then, in August, the former government announced in its mid-year economic review that the introduction of the cap would be postponed for 12 months. Since then, the alliance has continued to lobby both the former and present governments.

The government’s decision today recognises the importance of further education and innovation for professions to meet the various challenges facing Australian society now and into the future.

For more information visit the Scrap the Cap website. You can read the Institute’s original submission against the proposed cap here and read more about the proposed cap on the Treasury website.