Work Related Expenses – What You Need to Know
The ATO are paying attention to people who are over-claiming work related expenses.
If you can satisfy these three rules then the expense is claimable:
- You must have spent the money and were not reimbursed
- It must be directly related to earning your income and not of a private nature
- You must have a record to prove it
Things to consider when claiming a deduction:
- Consider if your employer would confirm the expenses were required to earn your income and you weren’t reimbursed
- You are not automatically entitled to claim a standard deduction. There are exceptions to keeping written evidence that makes things simpler (e.g. using the cents per kilometre method for car expenses), but you still need to have spent the money and be able to show how you worked out your claim
- Receiving an allowance from your employer does not necessarily entitle you to a deduction
- You can keep track of your deductions using the myDeductions tool in the ATO app then email your data for inclusion in your tax return
- Another method is to take a photo with your phone and save it to Dropbox or similar
