| Employment Income: Deductions and Expenses |
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18A.3.1.2 Improvement not Enough |
A schoolteacher who attended a series of weekend lectures in history at a college for adult education for the purposes of improving his background knowledge could not deduct those expenses.82 There is a distinction between qualifying to teach and getting background material, on the one hand, and preparing lectures for delivery, on the other hand.83 Similarly a clerk who was obliged to attend late meetings of the council and who bought himself a meal before the meeting was not allowed to deduct the cost of the meal; he had been instructed to work late, not to eat.84 On similar grounds an employee was not allowed to deduct the costs of a record player and gramophone records which he had purchased for the purpose of providing a stimulus of good music while he worked especially late at night. As Cross J drily observed, ‘it may well be that (he) was stimulated to work better by hearing good music, just as other people may be stimulated to work better by drink …’.85 |
18A.3.1.3 Newspapers |
The House of Lords demands uniformity between Scotland and England. The distinction between expenditure incurred in the performance of the duties of the office and that which is incurred simply to prepare oneself to carry out those duties has been explored in recent case—law. In Smith v Abbott86 four journalists claimed in respect of expenditure on newspapers and periodicals.87 The Commissioners held in relation to each of them that the reading of the material was a necessary part of their duties as staff |