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25 June 2024 - 2 min read

ATO Mileage

If you drive your personal vehicle for business purposes, you might be entitled to claim mileage from the ATO. The term “ATO mileage” refers to the schemes the tax office offers for reimbursing employees, self-employed and business owners for such expenses.

Who can claim mileage on taxes?

ATO offers three different schemes by which you can claim your business mileage. Which one you use will depend on your situation.

  • As an employee or a sole trader, or in a partnership where at least one partner who’s an individual, you can claim ATO mileage through the cents per km or logbook method
  • For any other partnership, you can only use the logbook method to claim ATO mileage
  • As a company, trust, or no matter the situation claiming mileage for vehicles not classified as a car, use the actual costs method

Keep in mind that as an employee, if you get reimbursed for your business driving from your employer, you won’t be able to also claim mileage from the ATO.

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Cents per kilometre method

If you claim mileage through the cents per km method, you will have to do the following:

  • Record your business driving in compliant logs.
  • Multiply the kilometres by that year’s cents per km rate.
  • Claim ATO mileage on your tax return.

Keep in mind you can claim up to 5000 km per year using this method.

The 2024/25 ATO cents per kilometre rate is 88 cents. The rate is set by the ATO each year and covers all expenses of owning and driving your vehicle for the business portion of its use.

Logbook and Actual expenses methods

Claim mileage through the logbook or actual expenses method by also recording all business driving. Keep receipts and invoices of all expenses you’ve accrued owning and running your vehicle. Claim actual vehicle expenses for the percentage of business kilometres you’ve driven that year. For example, if 20% of your annual driving was business-related, you will be able to claim 20% of your vehicle expenses.

Learn more about the records you need to keep depending on the ATO mileage method you use.

FInd out more information about business-related driving deductions and reimbursement in our ATO mileage guide.

FAQ

If you don’t want to save receipts of all car expenses throughout the year and simply record your business kilometres, you will be able to claim up to 5000 kilometres per year in car expense deductions.
For the 2023-24 tax year, you can claim 85 cents per km. If you are filing your claim for the 2022-23 tax year, you are able to claim 78 cents per km.
You can claim all business kilometres throughout the year if you use the ATO logbook method. If you choose to claim by the cents per km method, you will only be able to claim up to 5000 kilometres.

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