8 July 2008
If you are an employee you can claim deductions for work-related expenses that you incurred while performing your job. If those work-related expenses include an amount of goods and services tax, the GST is part of the total expense and is therefore part of any allowable deduction.
Here are some basic guidelines for making work related expenses deductions.
- You must have incurred the expense in the relevant tax year
- You cannot claim an expense that your employer (or any other person) has or will reimburse you for.
- You must have incurred the expense in the course of earning your assessable income and it must not be private, domestic or capital in nature. If you incurred an expense that was both work related and private, you can only claim a deduction for the work-related portion of the expense. For example if you use your telephone partially for work you are able claim a portion of your total telephone expense.
- You must be able to demonstrate your claims with written evidence if the total claim is greater than $300, excluding claims for car, meal allowance, award transport payments allowance and travel allowance expenses.
- If the total you are claiming is $300 or less, you need to be able to show how you worked out your claims but you do not need written evidence.
You should also know that there are specific guidelines for many occupations from the Australian Taxation Office or your tax agent. Some of these occupations include; nurses, police, truck drivers, real estate employees, building workers, and school teachers.
