It’s the time of year again when we locate all our receipts to work out what we can and cannot claim. I will go through three of the main areas relating to work related deductions. Please remember it all depends on your personal occupation.
Mobile Phones
These days we are using our mobile phone a lot more for work, including apps that are directly related to work, this means you will be able to claim a percentage of your mobile phone bill that directly relates to work.
Motor Vehicle Expenses
There are two ways to claim motor vehicle expenses on your personal vehicle, they are; Cents per kilometre and Logbook methods.
Cents per kilometre: These are business kilometres that are completed while at work, they include but are not limited to traveling to multiple sites, traveling to visit clients or running errands. A maximum of 5,000kms can be claim with this method. Please note that traveling from home to your place of work is not considered work related travel.
Logbook: If you would like to claim your registration, insurance, repairs & maintenance and fuel, then you would need to complete a logbook for a 13 week period (as long as your travel stays consistent during the year). This method is usually better for individuals traveling more than 5,000kms during the year.
Working from Home
A lot of us had to start working from home during the year due to Covid19. The Australian Taxation Office have made it easier to claim our home office expenses from 1 March 2020 to 30 September 2020. This rate includes the following expenses:
- Telephone
- Internet
- Electricity and Gas
- Decline in value of equipment and Furniture
Make sure you have a record of the number of hours you worked from home, this could be via a timesheet, roster, a diary or documentation that sets out the hours you worked from home.
Just remember we cannot claim razor blades if you need to be clean shaven for work. (Yes, this has been asked before)
Author
Natasa Briffa
