By the decision of the Madras High Court carrying citation (2021] 18 ITR-OL 236 (Mad) even costs incurred for acquiring post graduation degree by a partner may be admissible expenditure.
In this case the B.E. degree held son ( also partner) of one partner went to Australia for completion of his post graduate degree in engineering. The duration of the course and training was for a period of two semesters and it was established before authorities that the course underwent was directly related to the engineering profession carried on by the firm and this accrued in favour of the firm with the professional fee received by the firm had substantially increased after his post graduate qualification . Even such partner continued to work for the firm. Also materials were placed to show that several important contracts have been secured by the firm but for the educational qualification and expertise acquired by the partner of the firm abroad.
This is a case of a family firm of engineering professionals with two brothers and two nephews, all being partners. The foreign returned partner remaining with the firm is not a significant landmark nor did his contributing to the business of the family firm because of being a directly related person.
This decision will also open doors to all professional firms of lawyers, Chartered accountants , architects engineers etc. running their proprietorship firms to claim benefit of deduction of higher education expenditure of self.
What applies here may equally hold good in a company setting with employees receiving payments for pursuing higher education in the course of their employment without any perquisite tax.
