Work-Related Expenses

Work-related expenses are expenses you incur directly related to your employment. In case your employer doesn’t reimburse you for these expenses, you can claim tax deductions from the ATO.

In order to claim work-related expenses on your tax return, you must make sure of the following:

• The expenses directly relate to your job and earning your income
• You have spent money from your own pocket
• Your employer didn’t reimburse you for your expenses
• You have receipts to prove the work-related expenses

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What work expenses you can claim

Car and travel expenses

You can claim work-related expenses when driving your car for business purposes. These can include driving from your place of work to a client meeting or running errands. Note that you cannot claim car expenses for commuting to and from work, as this is considered personal driving. You can claim car expenses by two methods - the cents per km method and the logbook method. Learn more about claiming your car expenses from the ATO.

If you travel by other means of transportation for work purposes, you can claim these expenses too. Travel expenses can include air, train, bus and taxi fares. If your stay away from home for work duties is overnight, you can claim meals, accommodation and some other expenses too.

Clothing, dry-cleaning and laundry expenses

You can claim clothing and footwear expenses so long as these items are considered to be protective, occupation-specific or uniforms (compulsory and non-compulsory).

Examples of protective clothing include safety shoes, fire-resistant clothing, and aprons to protect ordinary clothes.

Compulsory uniforms are clothes you are obliged to wear to work. They must be distinctive enough from ordinary clothing and clearly show you are working for a particular employer.

You can only claim work-related expenses for a non-compulsory uniform if your employer has registered its design with AusIndustry.

Finally, you can also claim your expenses for laundry and dry-cleaning for the allowable clothing described above.

Self-education expenses

You can claim expenses for study and self-education if these activities have sufficient relevancy to your current work activities and:

• Improve or maintain your skills or knowledge needed for your job
• Will or will likely result in an increase in your income from your current job.

Expenses you can claim include tuition fees, and objects directly related to the education, such as books, textbooks, stationery, student services etc. You can also claim the cost of travelling between home/work and the place of education. Finally, you might be able to claim a deduction for depreciation of assets, such as computers or printers that you use for your education.

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