An employee can claim tax relief on statutory registration fees listed in section 343 ITEPA 2003 and on annual subscriptions to bodies HMRC has approved under section 344, which are published in List 3. Relief is only for amounts the employee pays personally, at their marginal rate, and the body must be relevant to the job. When an employer pays a List 3 subscription directly or reimburses it, there is nothing to report and no tax or National Insurance to pay.

What can an employee actually claim relief for?

Professional fees fail the normal test for employee expenses. HMRC’s Employment Income Manual at EIM32880 explains that no deduction is available under section 336 ITEPA 2003 because the cost is not incurred in the performance of the duties, citing Simpson v Tate and Wales v Graham. Parliament therefore created two specific reliefs.

  • Section 343: professional membership fees. These are statutory fees listed in a table in section 343(2), such as the fee for entry or retention on the register of medical practitioners, the dentists register, the Nursing and Midwifery Council register, the Register of Architects, and the fee and compensation fund contribution paid on the issue of a solicitor’s practising certificate. Relief is due only if the duties involve practising that profession and the registration or licence is a condition of practising it in the job.
  • Section 344: annual subscriptions. The subscription must be paid to a body approved by HMRC, and the body’s qualifying activities must be of direct benefit to, or concern the profession practised in, the performance of the duties of the employment.

Both sections give a deduction from employment income. They do not apply to a self employed person, whose fees are dealt with under the trading rules; see legal and professional fees.

What is List 3 and how do you read an entry?

List 3 is HMRC’s published list of approved professional organisations and learned societies, arranged alphabetically. Each entry gives the name of the body and, where relevant, the first tax year for which relief is available. Many recent additions carry a note such as “with effect from 6 April 2026”, so a subscription paid in an earlier year to that body does not qualify. HMRC last updated the list on 29 September 2026, adding the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences from 6 April 2026.

Three features of an entry deserve attention:

  • Partial relief. Under section 344(5) HMRC can restrict relief where a body spends a significant part of its effort on other objects. List 3 shows the restriction against the entry: for example the British Medical Association is restricted to 85% of the annual subscription, the British Dental Association to 90%, and the British Airline Pilots Association to two thirds.
  • Journals. A “(J)” after the name means subscriptions to that body’s journals or publications also qualify.
  • Extra subscriptions. Some entries extend relief. The ICAEW entry, for example, also allows additional annual subscriptions to individual faculties.

The accountancy and tax bodies most readers will look for, including ICAEW, ICAS, ACCA, AAT and the Chartered Institute of Taxation, all appear on the list. EIM32881 notes that a newly approved body may not yet appear, but its members are still entitled to relief, and section 344(7) treats subscriptions paid in the tax year of the application, or while the application is pending, as paid to an approved body.

How does a body get onto the list?

Section 344(3) lets an HMRC officer approve a body on its application if it is not of a mainly local character, its activities are carried on otherwise than for profit, and they are wholly or mainly directed to the advancement or spreading of knowledge, maintaining or improving standards of conduct and competence in a profession, or providing indemnity or protection to members against professional liabilities. EIM32910 confirms applications are handled centrally by HMRC. An employee cannot apply on behalf of a body; if a membership is not on the list, no relief is due.

When is a subscription relevant enough to the job?

Being on List 3 is not enough by itself. Section 344(1)(b) requires the body’s activities to benefit, or concern the profession practised in, the employee’s duties. A qualified accountant working as a finance manager can claim an ICAEW subscription; a payroll clerk who joins a learned society about medieval history cannot. EIM32915 tells HMRC officers to consider the duties where membership looks unrelated, giving the example of a professional with management responsibilities, and says enquiries should not be made unless membership appears quite unrelated to the employment.

What cannot be claimed?

  • Life membership subscriptions and entrance fees (EIM32915 and GOV.UK).
  • Fees or subscriptions the employer paid or repaid in full.
  • Subscriptions to bodies that HMRC has not approved.
  • Any element above a restriction shown in List 3.
  • The same fee twice: where someone is both employed and self employed, EIM32915 says the fee cannot be deducted in both computations.

How does an employee make the claim?

Employees who do not file a Self Assessment return can claim through HMRC’s online service or on form P87 by post. The postal route is only for claims of £2,500 or less in total for each tax year; above that, a Self Assessment return is required. Anyone already in Self Assessment must claim on the return. Claims can cover the current tax year and the 4 previous tax years.

Since October 2024 HMRC has required supporting evidence before it processes PAYE expense claims. For professional fees and subscriptions this means copies of receipts or other evidence showing how much was paid for each one. The employee must also have paid tax in the year. Relief is given at the rate of tax paid: HMRC’s own example is that £60 claimed at 20% gives £12. For the current year HMRC usually adjusts the tax code; for earlier years it adjusts the code or makes a refund. See PAYE tax codes for how the adjustment appears.

What happens when the employer pays instead?

GOV.UK says an employer does not have to report anything or pay tax or National Insurance if it pays the organisation directly, or repays an employee who paid, and the organisation is on List 3. This rests on the paid and reimbursed expenses exemption, which removes the charge where the employee could have claimed the deduction anyway. EIM30270 adds that the lack of an independent receipt is not necessarily a bar to an exempt payment for a section 344 subscription.

If the body is not on List 3, the treatment depends on who pays:

Who pays Treatment
Employer pays the body directly Add the cost to earnings for Class 1 National Insurance through payroll, but not PAYE tax
Employee pays and employer repays Add to earnings and deduct PAYE tax and Class 1 National Insurance through payroll
Provided through salary sacrifice Must be reported; if the value is less than the salary given up, report the salary amount instead

The last row reflects the general exclusion of salary sacrifice arrangements from the exemption. Any taxable amount usually appears on the P11D unless it is payrolled.

How does this work in practice?

Illustration only. Priya is employed as a management accountant and pays £400 a year to her chartered accountancy institute, which is on List 3 without restriction. She is a basic rate taxpayer and has never claimed. In October 2026 she can claim for 2026 to 2027 and the four earlier years, provided she paid tax in each year and can show receipts. Relief is £80 a year (20% of £400). If her employer started paying the subscription directly from 2027, she would stop claiming, and the employer would have nothing to report.

Compare Tom, an employed doctor paying £600 to the British Medical Association. Only 85% is allowable, so his claim is £510 a year, giving £204 of relief at 40%.

What mistakes come up most often?

  • Claiming for a body that is not on List 3, or for a year before the entry’s effective date.
  • Ignoring a percentage restriction shown against the entry.
  • Claiming a subscription the employer has already repaid.
  • Assuming every professional body membership is relevant to every job.
  • Employers treating repayment of a subscription to a body not on List 3 as exempt, when it is earnings subject to PAYE and Class 1.

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Reviewed by Christine Anderson, Broker, Solar Protect. Last reviewed 8 October 2026. Part of Accountapedia, the Solar Protect guide to UK tax and accounting. This page is general information, not personalised advice.