Tax Tips for IT Workers

Upgrade your knowledge and learn about these tax deductions!

Uniforms & Laundry
You can claim the cost of purchasing, washing, and mending your uniforms as long as they have your employer’s logo permanently attached. 

You can also claim the cost of dry cleaning your uniforms, make sure you keep your receipts. 

You cannot claim ordinary black pants, skirts, or shoes.
 

Car Expenses
You can claim work-related travel e.g. from your place of work to a client’s property to review their communication systems, etc.  

You can also claim car expenses for travelling from one job directly to a second job. 

Home to work travel is not tax deductible. 

Keep a diary tracking your kilometres. If you think you will go over 5,000kms keep a 12-week consecutive logbook and receipts for any car expenses e.g. Rego & Insurance, Repairs, Fuel etc. 

Self-Education

If you’re required to undertake study to maintain or improve your skills within your current role, or it will lead to an increase in income within your current role. 

You may be able to claim a deduction for:

 - Course fees (if they aren’t HECS/HELP loans or haven’t been reimbursed by your employer)
- Text books
- Stationery
- Travel
- Home Office use

Tools & Equipment
These may include: 

Tools to repair computers
Laptops
Tablets
Headphones or Webcams for virtual calls

If the expense is under $300, you can claim it outright.
If the expense is over $300, you’ll need to spread the expense over a few years.

Don’t worry – we do all the maths for this, all you need is the date you bought the item and how much it was. 

Home Office

If you have to work from home, and from a designated office keep a one-month logbook to claim home office running expenses which include:
Electricity
Gas
Heating
Lighting

You can also claim: 

Computers & Laptops (using the same rule as tools and equipment)
Mobile Phone use (Keep a one-month logbook)
Internet Use (Keep a one-month logbook)
Printers & Printer Ink
Stationery etc. 

Other Work-Related Expenses
You may also be able to claim the following expenses:

• Tax Agent Fees

• Union Fees

• Mobile Phone and/or Internet (Keep a one-month logbook tracking your work calls and work use) 

Need logbooks? All of our logbooks come with instructions and the calculations required to work out your work use percentage! You can find these inside your tax return.