Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 section 260

Exception where training not generally available to staff

Section 260 restricts the individual learning account training exemption under section 255 to cases where the training arrangements are genuinely open to staff generally, rather than being targeted at selected individuals.

• The tax exemption for individual learning account training only applies where the expenditure is incurred under pre-existing arrangements that provide for contributions to training costs for employees or former employees.
• Those contribution arrangements must be generally available on similar terms to all of the employer's employees at the relevant time — not limited to specific individuals.
• "Existing arrangements" means arrangements already in place at the point the agreement to spend the money was made, whether the contributor is the employer, a former employer, or a third party.
• The Treasury may make regulations specifying which entities Crown servants are treated as being employed by for the purposes of this section, including grouping different categories of Crown servants together or making different provision for different categories.