{"id":1264,"date":"2013-06-19T11:06:17","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T01:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2013-06-25T11:46:10","modified_gmt":"2013-06-25T01:46:10","slug":"ato-announces-2k-cap-on-self-education-expenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1264","title":{"rendered":"ATO announces $2k cap on self-education expenses"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">An Australian Government announcement that tax-deductions for work related self-education expenses will be limited to $2000 per person per year penalises well intentioned vets, according to the Australian Veterinary Association.<\/span><\/div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\nThe cap, which comes into effect on 1 July 2014, is designed to yield savings to help fund the Government\u2019s National Plan for School Improvement.\r\n\r\nBut AVA President Ben Gardiner said the $2000 figure did not make sense.\r\n\r\nAccording to numbers provided by the AVA, in 2010 the average veterinarian claimed an estimate $2728 for self education, with some spending in excess of $5000 educating themselves and staff.\r\n\r\nGardiner said that the association, which represents approximately 7500 Australian veterinarians, was still seeking clarification about what educational expenses will fall under the proposed cap.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe announcement was made in a media release without consultation,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a poor way to introduce a new policy.\u201d<!--more-->\r\n\r\n\u201cIt sends a very negative message to the profession, namely that if you want to deliberately go about improving your career you will almost be penalised for it. We still don\u2019t know where someone plucked the two thousand dollar figure from,\u201d Gardiner said.\r\n\r\nHe admitted that someone flying to the annual AVA conference from interstate could easily generate expenses of over $4000, when airfares, registration and accommodation were taken into account.\r\n\r\nHe said that while the ATO may be targeting a minority of people who generate excessive expenditure, it seems unfair to penalise the majority who are genuinely seeking to learn.\r\n\r\n\u201cVeterinarians are a very energetic and willing cohort of professionals when it comes to getting themselves up-skilled, and certainly newer veterinarians have a very good appetite for continuing education.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cProfessional development is mandated in most states,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are certainly cheaper ways to learn, such as online training, but people seeking to learn a new procedure or technique really need to attend workshops or labs.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnother issue the AVA is seeking clarification on is whether postgraduate training at masters and PhD level would be subject to the cap.\r\n\r\nThe AVA has been in touch with the Australian Medical Association and the Australian Dental Association.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe\u2019ve contacted our members and asked them to express their concerns both to us and their local MPs,\u201d Gardiner said. \u201cWe are not happy, we want to talk with the Government of the day and have a fair opportunity to express our needs to them.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists raised similar concerns, with president Lindy Roberts suggesting that the cap introduced a \u201chuge disincentive\u201d for doctors to attend courses to keep their skills current.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis will have a major impact on anaesthetists, especially those in rural and remote areas, who already face significant out-of-pocket expenses to maintain their skills to the standard that is expected of Australian practitioners,\u201d Roberts said.\r\n\r\nAVA executive officer Mark Fraser echoed these sentiments. In a letter to the Government from the NSW AVA division, he wrote that the changes put veterinarians at a \u201csignificant disadvantage.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cTo deal with emerging diseases such as Hendra virus, new technologies, new pharmaceuticals, new procedures and higher client expectations, veterinarians must be able to continue to attend professional education events.\u201d\r\n\r\nIlana Mendels, founder of private educator Vetprac, expressed concern over the changes.\r\n\r\n\u201cAs a practical skills continuing education provider it is important to me that I bridge the gaps in the professional community which cannot be managed by journals, web contact and intermittent lectures,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nBut workshops are inherently more costly to run.\r\n\r\n\u201cI don\u2019t want to cut corners in the quality of education I provide because that will dilute the quality of professional service which the public ultimately receives.\u201d\r\n\r\nMendels added that the cap would not only impact veterinarians and education providers, but associated industries such as conference organisers, hospitality and companies who display their products at conference stands.\r\n\r\nPrivate practitioner James Thompson called the proposed changes \u201ca sick joke\u201d.\r\n\r\nOver the past two financial years, Thompson, owner of Turramurra Veterinary Hospital, has invested $17,000 into continuing education. This includes course fees for the Master of Veterinary Studies through Murdoch University, conference registration fees and accommodation, wet labs and text books.\r\n\r\nHe said the figure did not include personal time sacrificed for study or mentoring.\r\n\r\nThompson is meeting with his local MP later this month to express his concerns directly.\r\n\r\nThe AVA encourages concerned veterinarians to contact their local parliamentary member.\r\n\r\nAnne Fawcett\r\n\r\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Australian Government announcement that tax-deductions for work related self-education expenses will be limited to $2000 per person per year penalises well intentioned vets, according to the Australian Veterinary Association. The cap, which comes into effect on 1 July 2014, is designed to yield savings to help fund the Government\u2019s National Plan for School Improvement. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1119,1111,578,1118,1113,76,1115,1116,1117,113,1120,1114,1112],"class_list":["post-1264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-assistance","tag-ato","tag-ava","tag-ben-gardiner","tag-cap","tag-education","tag-expenses","tag-finances","tag-financial","tag-news-2","tag-regulations","tag-self-education","tag-taxation"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":400,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":400,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"An Australian Government announcement that tax-deductions for work related self-education expenses will be limited to $2000 per person per year penalises well intentioned vets, according to the Australian Veterinary Association. The cap, which comes into effect on 1 July 2014, is designed to yield savings to help fund the Government\u2019s National Plan for School Improvement. But AVA President Ben Gardiner..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"1119":{"name":"assistance","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=assistance"},"1111":{"name":"ATO","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=ato"},"578":{"name":"AVA","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=ava"},"1118":{"name":"Ben Gardiner","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=ben-gardiner"},"1113":{"name":"cap","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=cap"},"76":{"name":"education","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=education"},"1115":{"name":"expenses","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=expenses"},"1116":{"name":"finances","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=finances"},"1117":{"name":"financial","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=financial"},"113":{"name":"news","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=news-2"},"1120":{"name":"regulations","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=regulations"},"1114":{"name":"self-education","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=self-education"},"1112":{"name":"taxation","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=taxation"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1336,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions\/1336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}