To claim a deduction for car expenses:

• Your vehicle must meet the definition of a car.
• You must own or lease the car.
  • You do not own or lease the car if you use it under a salary sacrifice or novated lease arrangement.
• The expenses must be for work-related trips.
  • You can claim for trips between workplaces or to perform your work duties.
  • You can’t claim for trips between your home and place of work, except in limited circumstances.
• You must have spent the money yourself and weren’t reimbursed.
• You must have the required records.

If it’s someone else’s car or it’s another type of vehicle (such as a truck or motorcycle), see Expenses for a vehicle that isn’t yours or isn’t a car.

If your travel is partly private, you can only claim a deduction for the work-related portion of your expenses.

You claim the tax deduction in your income tax return as a work-related car expense.

If you receive an allowance from your employer for car expenses, you must include it as assessable income in your tax return. The allowance amount is shown on your income statement or payment summary.

For a summary of this information in PDF format, see Car expenses (PDF, 1.5MB)This link will download a file.

To claim a work-related car expense, the vehicle must be a car.

A car is a motor vehicle that carries a load of less than one tonne and fewer than 9 passengers (including the driver). This includes electric (zero emissions) and hybrid vehicles if they meet this definition. Motorcycles and similar vehicles are not cars.

If the vehicle does not meet this definition, you claim your work-related expenses using the approach for a vehicle that isn’t a car.

To claim car expenses you must own, lease (from a finance company) or hire it (under a hire-purchase arrangement with the dealership).

You can’t claim running costs for a car you use under a salary sacrifice or novated lease arrangement. In this situation the car is usually leased by your employer from a financing company, and your employer typically pays for the running costs and claims deductions. You can claim additional expenses, like parking and tolls associated with your work use of the car.

If you use a car owned by a family member, and you can show there is a private arrangement that made you the owner or lessee of the car (even if you aren’t the registered owner or lessee), you work out your car expenses as though it is your car.

If you don’t own or lease the car (or don’t have a private arrangement that makes you the owner or lessee), you claim your work-related expenses using the approach for a vehicle that isn’t yours.

You can claim a tax deduction for the cost of transport on trips to:

• perform your work duties – for example, if you travel from your regular place of work to meet with a client
• attend work-related conferences or meetings away from your regular place of work
• deliver items or collect supplies
• go between 2 or more separate places of employment, such as if you have more than one job (but not if one of the places is your home)
• go from your
  • regular place of work to an alternative place of work that isn’t a regular place of work (for example, a client’s premises) while still on duty, and back to your regular place of work or directly home
  • home to an alternative place of work that isn’t a regular place of work to perform your duties, and then to your regular place of work or directly home (this doesn’t apply if the alternative place of work has become a regular workplace).

You can’t claim trips between your home and place of work, except in limited circumstances.

These trips put you in a position to start work and earn income but are not part of performing your work duties. The cost of these trips is a private expense.

This is the case even if you:

• live a long way from your regular place of work
• work outside normal business hours – for example, shift work or overtime
• do minor work-related tasks on the way to work or the way home – for example, picking up the mail
• go between your home and regular place of work more than once a day
• are on call – for example, you are on standby duty and your employer contacts you at home to come into work
• have no public transport near where you work
• do some work at home
• work from your home running your own business and travel directly to a place of work where you work for somebody else.

There are some circumstances where you can claim a deduction for the cost of trips between home and work. You must check that you meet the eligibility conditions for at least one of the following:

• Home is a base of employment
• Transporting bulky tools and equipment
• Itinerant or shifting places of work

You may also be able to claim a deduction for a trip that includes an alternative place of work that isn’t a regular place of work – see Trips while working and between workplaces.

Home is a base of employment

You can claim a deduction for the cost of a trip from home to your place of work if your home was a base of employment. You must meet all 3 of these conditions:

• You’re required to start your employment duties at home then travel to your regular place of work to complete those particular duties.
• Undertaking the work in 2 locations is necessary due to the nature of your employment duties.
• The trip to your regular place of work isn’t part of a normal trip to work that would have occurred anyway.

Transporting bulky tools and equipment

You can claim a deduction for the cost of trips between home and work if you need to carry bulky tools or equipment and all the following conditions are met:

• the tools or equipment are essential to perform your work
• the tools or equipment are bulky, meaning that
  • they are awkward to transport because of their size and weight
  • they can only be transported conveniently using a motor vehicle
• there is no secure storage for such items at the workplace
• you don’t transport the tools or equipment as a matter of choice (for example, if your employer provides secure storage and you choose to take the tools home instead).

If you claim a deduction, you will need to keep a record of:

• all work items you carry
• the size and weight of all work items
• evidence that the items you carry are essential to your work
• evidence that your employer did not provide secure storage at the workplace.

Itinerant or shifting places of work

If you do itinerant work (you have shifting places of work), you can claim transport expenses you incur for trips between your places of work and your home. The following factors indicate you do itinerant work:

• you travel because it’s a fundamental part of your work, not just because it’s convenient to you or your employer
• you have a ‘web’ of workplaces you travel to throughout the day and no fixed place of work
• you regularly work at more than one work site before returning home
• you are often uncertain of the location of your work site
• your employer pays you a travel allowance because you need to travel continually between work sites, and you use this allowance to pay for your travel.

Claiming a trip

To claim a tax deduction for the transport expenses of a work-related trip, you must:

• have spent the money yourself and weren’t reimbursed
• have records of your expenses.

How you work out your claim amount depends on whether you made the trip:

• in your car or other motor vehicle
• by taxi, ride-share or public transport.

If you travel overnight to perform your work duties, you can generally claim a deduction for the cost of your flights and your expenses for accommodation, meals and incidentals.

If your travel is partly private, you can only claim a deduction for the transport expenses you incur in the course of performing your work duties.

You can’t claim a deduction for buying, hiring, repairing or cleaning conventional clothing you buy for work, even if your employer says the clothing is compulsory or you only wear it at work.

‘Conventional clothing’ is everyday clothing worn by people regardless of their occupation – for example, black trousers worn by waiters, business attire worn by office workers, or jeans or drill shirts worn by tradespeople.

You also can’t claim a deduction if your employer:

• buys, repairs, replaces or cleans your work clothing
• reimburses you for expenses you incur for work clothing.

You can claim your costs to buy or clean occupation-specific clothing that distinctly identifies you as a person associated with a particular occupation, such as:

• a chef’s chequered pants
• a judge’s robe.

You can’t claim for clothes you wear for work that are not specific to your occupation, may be worn in multiple professions or are everyday clothes. For example, you can’t claim for:

• a bartender’s black trousers and white shirt
• a business suit
• a swimming instructor’s swimwear.

You can claim a deduction for clothing and footwear you wear to protect you from the real and likely risk of illness or injury from your work activities or your work environment.

There has to be a link between your work-related activities, the risk presented by your work environment and the form and function of the clothing to mitigate that risk.

To be considered protective, the items must have both:

• protective features or functions
• a sufficient degree of protection against the risk of illness and injury you are exposed to in carrying out your work.

Protective clothing includes:

• fire-resistant clothing
• sunprotection clothing with a UPF sun protection rating
• safety-coloured vests
• non-slip nurse’s shoes
• protective boots, such as steel-capped boots or rubber boots for concreters
• gloves and heavy-duty shirts and trousers
• occupational heavy duty wet-weather gear
• boiler suits, overalls, smocks or aprons you wear to avoid damaging or soiling your ordinary clothes during your work activities.

You can’t claim a deduction for conventional clothes that don’t have features for protection against the risks of illness or injury at your work. For example, you can’t claim for jeans, drill shirts, shorts, trousers, socks or everyday enclosed shoes.

Clothing that provides a sufficient degree of protection against the risk of illness or injury includes, but is not limited to, clothing that:

• is made to cope with more rigorous conditions, where conventional clothing would be inadequate
• is designed to protect you – for example heavy duty shirts and trousers, distinct from ordinary cotton drill trousers, shorts and short sleeve shirts that may be considered as work wear but do not adequately protect the wearer from the risk of injury or illness
• has a density of weave which gives a UPF rating sufficient to protect you from the sun where your job requires you to work outdoors.

You can claim the costs you incur to buy and clean a compulsory uniform you wear at work.

A compulsory uniform is a set of clothing that identifies you as an employee of an organisation. Your employer must make it compulsory to wear the uniform through a strictly enforced workplace agreement or policy.

A compulsory uniform must either:

• be distinctive to your particular organisation, so that a casual observer can clearly identify you as working for a particular employer
• identify the products or services provided by your employer.

In limited circumstances, you can claim a deduction for shoes, socks and stockings if:

• they are an essential part of a distinctive compulsory uniform
• the characteristics (colour, style and type) are an integral and distinctive part of your uniform that your employer specifies in the uniform policy.

You can claim for a single item of clothing, such as a jumper, if it’s distinctive and compulsory for you to wear it at work. Clothing is unique and distinctive if it:

• has been designed and made only for the employer
• has the employer’s logo permanently attached and is not available to the public.

Conventional or everyday clothing is not a compulsory uniform, even if your employer requires you to wear it, or you pin a name badge to it.

You can’t claim for non-compulsory work uniforms unless your employer has registered the design. This means the uniform is on the Register of Approved Occupational ClothingExternal Link and you wear the uniform at work.

Shoes, stockings and underwear can never form part of a non-compulsory work uniform. Single items of clothing, such as a shirt, also can’t form part of a non-compulsory uniform unless they are a full body item such as a dress or overalls.

You can claim the costs you incur to launder, dry-clean or repair clothing you wear at work, even if the clothing is supplied by your employer, if the clothing is:

• occupation-specific and not conventional
• protective
• a compulsory uniform
• a registered non-compulsory uniform.

Laundry expenses

You can claim the costs you incur to wash (launder), dry and iron work clothing from one of the categories above.

This includes laundromat expenses.

You can’t claim a deduction if your employer launders your clothing or reimburses you.

We consider that a reasonable basis for working out your laundry claim is:

• $1 per load if it only contains work clothing from one of the categories above
• 50c per load if you mix personal items of clothing with work clothing from one of the categories above.

If you receive an allowance from your employer for laundry expenses:

• you can only claim a deduction for the amount you actually spent, not simply the amount of your allowance
• the allowance is assessable income that you must include on your tax return.

Dry-cleaning and repair expenses

You can claim a deduction for the actual costs you incur to dry-clean and repair work clothing from one of the categories above.

Keeping records for clothing, laundry and dry-cleaning

You need to keep receipts to claim a deduction for buying, dry-cleaning or repairing work-related clothing.

Your records need to show:

• the name or business name of the supplier
• the amount you spent
• the nature of the items you paid for
• the date you made the payment
• the date the receipt or other document was produced.

If you don’t (or can’t) get a receipt, you can provide other forms of evidence for your expenses. This evidence needs to show all of the information described above. Other forms of evidence might include:

• bank statements
• invoices
• purchase orders.

If your total claim for work-related expenses (including laundry expenses but excluding car, travel and overtime meal allowance expenses) is $300 or less, you can claim the amount without providing receipts. However, you need to be able to show how you have come up with the total of your claim.

If you claim a deduction for laundering (washing and drying), you must keep details of how you work out your claim.

If your laundry expenses (washing, drying and ironing but not dry-cleaning expenses) are $150 or less, you can claim the amount you incur on laundry without providing written evidence of your laundry expenses. This is the case even if your total claim for work-related expenses is more than $300 including your laundry expenses. However, if your total claim for work-related expenses is more than $300, you must have written evidence for your other work-related expenses.

You must have written evidence, such as diary entries and receipts, for your laundry expenses if both:

• your total claim for work-related expenses is more than $300
• your total claim for laundry expenses is more than $150.

You need to be able to show how you came up with the total of your laundry expense claim. This isn’t an automatic deduction.

If you choose a different basis to work out your claim, we may ask you to explain that basis.

You can claim a deduction for a self-education expense if, at the time you incur the expense, it has a sufficient connection to earning income from your employment activities.

Self-education has a sufficient connection to earning your employment income if it either:

• maintains or improves the specific skills or knowledge you require for your current employment activities
• results in, or is likely to result in, an increase in your income from your current employment activities.

Your employment activities are the duties and tasks expected of you to perform your job and are usually set out in your duty statement.

You may also be eligible if you undertake a course to maintain your right to receive a taxable bonded scholarship.

In some circumstances, only the expenses incurred for certain subjects or components of your self-education will have a sufficient connection to earning your employment income. For more information on when this will apply and how to apportion your expenses, see Apportioning expenses.

You can’t claim a deduction for a self-education expense if, at the time you incur the expense:

• it doesn’t have a sufficient connection to your employment activities
• you are not employed
• it only relates in a general way to your employment activities – such as undertaking a full-time fashion photography course and working as a casual sales assistant on the weekends
• it enables you to get new employment or change employment – such as a nurse completing a Medical degree to become a doctor or a café worker studying Hotel and Hospitality management.

If your self-education expenses meet the eligibility criteria, you can claim a deduction for the following expenses:

• Tuition, course, conference or seminar fees
• General course expenses
• Decline in value of depreciating assets
• Car and other transport expenses
• Accommodation and meal expenses (incurred when the self-education requires you to travel and be away from your home for one or more nights)
• Interest on borrowings.

Tuition, course, conference or seminar fees

You can claim a deduction for tuition fees, including student and amenities fees you incur if you are enrolled in a full fee-paying place at a university or other higher education institution. If you pay the fees up front, you will incur the amount when you pay it. If you withdraw from the course before the census date and the fees are subsequently refunded to you, you can’t claim a deduction for them. In all other circumstances, you incur deductible course or tuition fees when the debt becomes a legal obligation you need to pay back (for example, on the census date). This is not when you make a repayment.

This includes fees that you pay with the assistance of a:

• FEE-HELP loan
• VET Student Loan (VSL).

You can’t claim a deduction for voluntary or compulsory repayments of these loans in your tax return.

If you’re unsure whether you are enrolled in a full fee-paying place, you can check with your university or higher education institution.

There are certain tuition fees you can’t claim as a deduction.

For seminars, conferences and similar courses, you can claim a deduction for the cost you incur to attend the event or enrol in the course.

You can’t claim a deduction for tuition, course, conference or seminar fees if your employer reimburses you or pays the fees on your behalf.

General course expenses

You can claim a deduction for the following general course expenses you incur as a result of undertaking your work-related self-education:

• computer consumables – for example, printer cartridges
• equipment repairs – for example, the cost of repairing a computer
• internet and data usage (excluding connection fees)
• phone calls
• postage
• stationery
• student union fees
• textbooks
• trade, professional, or academic journals.

Decline in value of depreciating assets

A depreciating asset is an asset that loses its value over time. You can claim a deduction each year for the decline in value (depreciation) until the value of the asset is nil. This period is called the effective life of the asset.

You can claim a deduction for the decline in value (depreciation) of assets you use for work-related self-education purposes. For example:

• computers
• professional libraries
• desks and chairs
• filing cabinets and bookshelves
• calculators
• technical instruments and tools
• other equipment (such as desk lamps).

$300 or less

You can claim the cost of a depreciating asset you purchase in the year you buy it if:

• the asset cost $300 or less
• you mainly use it for work-related self-education (or in the course of earning other non-business assessable income) in the income year you buy it.

You need to apportion your claim if you also use the asset for private purposes.

More than $300

If the depreciating asset you are using for work-related self-education cost more than $300, you can claim a deduction for its decline in value over its effective life.

You must reduce your claim if you either:

• bought the asset part-way through the income year
• use the asset partly for private purposes.

To work out your claim for the decline in value of a depreciating asset, use our online Depreciation and capital allowances tool.

Car and other transport expenses

If your self-education expenses have a sufficient connection to earning income from your employment activities, you can claim transport expenses for both trips when you travel from your:

• home to your place of education and back home
• work to your place of education and back to work.

You can only claim the first leg of your trip when you travel from your:

• home to your place of education and then to work
• work to your place of education and then home.

The second leg of these trips is private and you can’t claim a deduction for the transport costs you incur for them.

If you incur parking fees when you attend your place of education or venue where the course or seminar is being held, you can claim a deduction for the cost of those fees as well.

For information on how to calculate your deduction for these expenses, see Motor vehicle and car expenses.

Accommodation and meal expenses

The day-to-day costs you incur relating to your accommodation and meals are generally private living expenses.

You can claim the cost of accommodation and meals only when:

• you are participating in work-related self-education activities
• the self-education requires you to be temporarily away from home for one or more nights.

Interest on borrowings

You can claim the interest on a loan where you use the borrowed funds to pay for deductible self-education expenses.

You can’t claim a deduction for repayments of loan principal.

You can’t claim the following expenses in relation to your self-education:

• tuition fees paid by someone else or that your employer or a third-party reimburses you for
• tuition fees paid upfront or with the assistance of a HECS-HELP loan for Commonwealth supported places at a university or higher education provider
• repayments of study and training support loans such as
  • Higher Education Loan Program (HELP), including FEE-HELP and HECS-HELP
  • Student Financial Supplement Scheme
  • VET Student Loans (VSL)
  • Student Start-up Loans and former ABSTUDY Student Start-up Loans
  • Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans (AASL)
• accommodation and meals where you are not required to be temporarily away from home for one or more nights.

You also can’t claim a deduction for self-education expenses you incur if your only income is a qualifying Australian Government allowance or payment. This allowance or payment is a rebatable benefit and is eligible for the beneficiary tax offset.

For self-education expenses incurred before 1 July 2022, you generally can’t claim the first $250 of expenses.