Definitions

• Laundry

  You can claim 50 cents per mixed load and $1 per full load of qualifying uniforms or protective clothing, up to $150 per year. Simply take your average loads per week and multiply it by the number of weeks you worked.

• Less Than $300

  If you claim less than $300 in work related expenses such as self education, tools, uniforms, protective items, stationery, union fees, etc you do not need to substantiate your claim with receipts. Any claim you make for motor vehicle expenses or travel costs (includes tolls and parking) is not counted towards the $300 limit.

• Less Than $10

  If each individual expense is less than $10 and the total of all such expenses does not exceed $200 you do not need to keep a receipt but must have a diary entry showing the name of the supplier, date, amount and a description of the purchase. This also applies when you can’t get a receipt such as parking meters.

• Allowances

  Each year the ATO produces a list of what it considers reasonable travel allowances. If your employer pays you an allowance and you do not claim more than the amount listed by the ATO as reasonable you do not have to substantiate with receipts. Though the onus of proof is so onerous that we recommend you keep the receipts so that rather than relying on the ATO discretion you can rely on the legislation. If you are relying on the allowance concessions the ATO will only allow you to claim for certain meals eaten at certain times and if you miss that time a catch up meal can’t be claimed. They also expect you to show credit card entries to prove that you where the one who actually paid for the meal and a diary with the details of you trip. If you are away from home for more than 5 nights you will need to keep a travel diary anyway. The ATO releases what it considers a reasonable overtime meal allowance each year. If you choose to rely on the reasonable allowance concession you can claim up to this amount even if your employer pays you less but you must be paid the allowance under an award. Whereas if you keep a receipt, doesn’t matter how much it is you can claim it. AAT recently accepted the ATO’s opinion that to qualify to deduct the cost of a meal against your overtime meal allowance you must buy and consume the overtime meal while at work. This now means you can’t buy the meal on your way home and claim it. Consider maybe buying something at lunch time to consume while working overtime, don’t forget to keep a receipt just in case.

• Home

  The ATO allows you 52 cents per hour for every hour you are working at home. This covers electricity and maintenance on the room. Keep the diary for 1 month. Due to COVID you have the option of increasing this to 80 cents an hour and covers expense claims for your phone, internet, stationary, computer, printer etc.

• Motor Vehicle

  By keeping a diary for one month each year you can claim up to 5,000 kilometres per vehicle you own. If you own a car together with another person and it is only their name on the registration papers they can complete a declaration of joint ownership so you can claim it. You are also considered to be the owner of a car even if it is registered in the name of another family member but you are the one who pays all the expenses relating to it.

• Telephone

  To claim STD and mobile calls from your home phone go through one month’s itemised account and work out the numbers that are work related. This percentage of work related calls can be applied to the mobile and STD calls in the other months. Local calls can be apportioned by keeping a diary for one month noting the ratio of private to work related local calls. Line rental can also be apportioned.

  If you need to use your mobile for work and haven’t kept records you can claim a flat $50 without records.

• Work related Travel

  Wage earners can claim their motor vehicle expenses when they meet the substantiation requirements and they travel as follows:

  1) Bulky Equipment – Home to work travel is claimable if there is no safe storage at work and as a result you transport bulky equipment between home and work.  Safe storage is defined as similar to your own personal locker.  Therefore, a container on a building site to which all and sundry has a key is not safe storage.

  2) Abnormal workplace, this is defined in ATO material as:

  From your normal workplace to an alternative workplace – for example, a client’s premises – while still on duty and back to your normal workplace or directly home.  From your home to an alternative workplace for work purposes and then to your normal workplace or directly home.

  This includes being sent to another branch or shop to relieve providing you were not employed predominantly to relieve.  It covers seminars and visits to customers.  It also includes work related tasks performed on the way home or to work but, note the task cannot be insignificant such as dropping off the mail.  But if you must travel out of your way to drop off the mail you can claim for this extra distance. For more refer TD 96/42 & TD 96/43.

  3) Between Jobs – note this includes travel from home when home is the base of operations or work begins there.  Home can be considered a base of employment if employment related duties have begun before leaving there, providing those employment related duties did not begin merely for your convenience.  Working from home during COVID does not make it your base of operations.

  4)  Itinerant work – Your job involves travelling to more than one place of work before you return home.  In the case of itinerancy you not only get travel between those places of work but also between home and the first and last place of work.  Carers are a good example.