Income tax for teachers in Sri Lanka — Y/A 2025/2026

A worked example for teachers

Illustrative figures for a typical income mix for teachers — employment salary, freelance or business, bank interest — using the default amounts below. Your own numbers will differ; use the wizard above for your actual figures.

Tuition income sits entirely outside the school payroll system, so nothing about it appears on your APIT certificate and the IRD has no independent record of it beyond what a hall owner, printer, or your own bank deposits imply — which makes a simple weekly log of class fees the single most useful record a teacher can keep. Cash payments from students are the norm in tuition, and cash income is exactly what gets estimated rather than assessed when a return is queried; a dated running total, even a basic notebook, is worth more than memory at filing time. Hall rent, printing of notes and past papers, and payment to an assistant marker are all deductible against tuition income, but a home study used for both personal and tuition purposes only allows a proportionate claim — not the full utility bill. Where tuition income alone crosses the point where quarterly SET instalments apply, remember the instalment calendar doesn't align with the school term calendar, so the first instalment can fall due before you've even finished a full term of the new class year.

Common questions

Is private tuition income taxable?

Yes. Tuition and class fees are business income, self-assessed on Schedule 2. Nothing is withheld at source, so the charge falls due when you file.

Can I deduct the cost of running classes?

Expenses incurred in earning that income qualify — hall rent, printing, materials, assistants. Keep the receipts; the deduction has to be supportable.

Do I file one return for a salary and tuition together?

One return, two schedules. The salary carries its APIT credit, the tuition is self-assessed, and both run through the same progressive slabs.

Work out a single figure instead