Are you getting all the tax deductions you're entitled to?
We list some of the common tax deductions you may be missing out on...
Laundry & Uniform
If your uniform is compulsory, has your employer's logo attached, or distinctly identifies you (e.g. a police officer) you can claim the cost of your uniforms along with any laundry, dry cleaning, or mending in your online income tax return.
Car Expenses
If you need to drive around in your own car for work e.g. to a meeting, to the post office or to collect supplies, keep a diary or 12-week consecutive logbook tracking your kilometers to claim a tax deduction for your car kilometres or a portion of your car expenses.
Home-to-work travel is not tax-deductible unless you’re carrying heavy or bulky tools that can’t be left in a safe place at your work.
For more detail on this, check out our Car Expenses Blog
Home Office
Work from home? This year, there are two ways you can claim your home office tax deductions:
Option 1 – The Original Way:
If you were working from home BEFORE 1 March 2020, or began after 1 March 2020 and would prefer to claim Home Office the original way you can claim the following:
- If you have a designated office (not your coffee table) keep a diary tracking your work hours, to claim your electricity, heating, cooling, and a portion of your office furniture.
- Phone & Internet – Keep a one-month logbook tracking your work-related calls, texts, and internet use.
- Stationery & Office Consumables e.g. Pens, Pencils, Notepads, Paper, printer ink, etc.
- Office Equipment e.g. Computers, laptops, tablets, headphones, webcams, calculators, etc.
Option 2 - The Shortcut Way:
If you only started working from home from 1 March 2020, and don’t want to use the original home office method you can claim:
Your home office, phone, internet, office furniture, cleaning expenses, computer consumables (e.g. printer ink), stationery, and computers or laptops with the new shortcut method.
For this method, you don’t need a designated office, and if more than one person in your household was required to work from home, you can both claim the home office expense.
Keep a record of how many hours you worked from home, this can be in a diary or through your work timesheets then enter these hours into your Gotax Online tax return and we’ll work out how much you can claim.
Tax Agent Fees
If you paid for a tax agent (like Gotax) to do your tax last year, it’s tax-deductible.
Stationery
If you’ve had to buy pens, paper, notepads, or any other stationery for work you’ll be able to claim it on your income tax return.
We make the whole tax return process really easy for you
Just make sure you follow 3 rules when claiming your tax deductions:
- You have to spend the money yourself; your boss can’t reimburse you
- You must keep records of your expenses
- The expenses must be directly related to you earning your income
We can help make following the rules even easier for you too!
Download our ATO compliant logbooks for FREE, they can be found inside your online income tax return, and upload your records and receipts to your Gotax account for an additional $10, then we’ll keep them safe for you.
Get the Tax Deductions you deserve!
Select your Occupation to find the common tax deductions you may be entitled to
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