Tax deductions for allied health professionals
For allied health professionals, the tax rules turn on small details. A massage table you use only for work can be claimed. The business clothes you wear to work cannot. Parking at the hospital where you work is private, but parking at a university where you give a work presentation is not.
This page sets out what you can and cannot claim as an allied health professional in Australia, checked against the ATO's own occupation guide, which covers physiotherapists, psychologists, pharmacists, occupational therapists, radiographers, optometrists, podiatrists, chiropractors, osteopaths and medical laboratory technicians. Where a rule has a catch in it, we have said so rather than left it out. The guide does not name speech pathologists, dietitians, audiologists, exercise physiologists or sonographers, but the ATO's general rules apply to them too.
Like the ATO's guide, it is written for employees. If you work on your own ABN or own a practice, a business consultation is the better place to start. We have separate guides for doctors, dentists, nurses and midwives and paramedics.
Aevum Accounting is a CPA practice and registered tax agent in Balcatta, Perth, working with allied health professionals across Australia.
Approved by Ben De Rosa, CPA. Last checked against the ATO's guidance on 26 September 2026.
What allied health professionals can claim
Before any specific deduction, an expense has to clear all three of these. The ATO calls them the three golden rules.
1. You spent the money yourself and were not reimbursed. If your employer paid for it or paid you back, it is not your deduction.
2. The expense directly relates to earning your income. Not helpful to your career in general. Directly related to the job you are doing now.
3. You have a record to prove it. Usually a receipt.
If an expense was part work and part private, you can only claim the work-related portion. And you cannot claim at all if you have no records, or if someone else paid.
The short version, before the detail. These are the claims worth checking every year.
Usually deductible
Renewing your registration each year, if you pay for it.
Union and professional association fees.
Professional indemnity insurance you pay for yourself.
Scrubs, protective lab coats and enclosed non-slip shoes.
A compulsory uniform with your employer's logo, if you buy it.
Washing claimable clothing, even a uniform your employer supplies.
Safety glasses, face masks and sanitiser your employer does not supply.
Equipment such as a massage table, and insuring and repairing it.
A briefcase you need to carry work documents and a laptop.
Continuing professional development (CPD), courses and conferences for your current job.
Driving from your workplace to clients or training, or between two jobs on the same day.
Parking and tolls on work trips.
The work share of your phone and internet, and working from home.
Not deductible, however it feels
Your first registration, which you need to get the job.
Business attire, even if your employer requires it.
Parking at your regular workplace, such as hospital staff parking.
The drive between home and your regular workplace, even when you are on call.
Prescription glasses and contact lenses.
Safety goggles and other items your employer supplies.
Networking breakfasts and other social functions, even if you talk about work.
A course that does not directly relate to your job, such as one to manage your own stress.
Study for a different career, such as a lab assistant training to be a paramedic.
Commonwealth supported course fees, even paid upfront, and study loan repayments.
Food and drink on a normal shift, even with a meal allowance.
Flu shots and other vaccinations, even when your employer requires them.
Haircuts, cosmetics and skin care.
Fines, even ones you get while working.
Each of these is explained properly below.
From the 2026-27 income year, if you are an Australian resident earning a salary or wage, you get a standard deduction of up to $1,000 for work-related expenses. The ATO applies it automatically and you do not need receipts for it. It became law in June 2026 and starts with the 2026-27 return, which you lodge from July 2027. It does not apply to the 2025-26 return you are lodging now.
It is not a bonus on top of your normal claims. Any work-related expenses you claim reduce it dollar for dollar. Claim $600 of expenses and your standard deduction drops to $400, so you land on $1,000 either way, with more paperwork. If your work expenses are more than $1,000, you claim them the way you do now, and you need records for every dollar you claim, not just the part above $1,000. For most expenses, that means written evidence such as receipts.
Union fees and professional association memberships sit outside it. You can claim those on top of the full $1,000, as long as you keep the records. The same goes for deductions that are not work expenses, such as donations to charity, income protection premiums and your tax agent's fee.
For allied health professionals, it depends on who pays for your registration, indemnity insurance and CPD. If you pay them yourself, they count towards the $1,000 and can take you past it on their own. Keep your receipts until you know which side of the line you are on.
You cannot claim the cost of your first registration, because you need it to get the job. You can claim renewing your registration each year if you need it to keep working in your current job and you pay for it yourself. If your profession is not registered through AHPRA, the same rule applies to a practising certificate, membership or accreditation you need to work in your field.
If you are moving from provisional to general registration, as intern pharmacists and provisional psychologists do, the ATO's guide does not deal with that cost or with exam fees, so talk to us before you claim them.
Union fees and professional association memberships are deductible, and if the amount is on your income statement, that can be your evidence. Professional indemnity insurance for your work is deductible if you pay for it, but not if your employer does.
If your job needs a working with children check, you can claim getting or renewing it to keep earning in your current position. A new employee can claim it only if their recent income is from continuous work in a child-related field.
Everyday clothing is private, even if your employer requires it and you only wear it at work. In the ATO's example, Daniel, an occupational therapist, cannot claim the professional business attire he wears to work, because it is conventional clothing.
You can claim what you pay to buy, hire, repair or replace protective clothing, occupation-specific clothing, a compulsory uniform your employer strictly and consistently enforces and that identifies you as working for them, or a non-compulsory uniform your employer has registered on the Register of Approved Occupational Clothing. Protective clothing protects you from specific risks of injury or illness at work. The ATO's examples are enclosed non-slip shoes, and scrubs or lab coats that protect your ordinary clothes, but not ordinary closed shoes, trousers or shirts. A white lab coat is not occupation-specific, because several professions wear one.
You cannot claim clothing your employer buys, repairs or replaces, and if your hospital supplies and washes your scrubs, there is nothing to claim. You can claim the cost of washing claimable clothing, even if your employer supplied it, at $1 a load for work clothing only, or 50 cents a load if you mix in personal items. Dry-cleaning and repairs are claimed at actual cost.
Prescription glasses and contact lenses are private. In the ATO's example, Boris, a medical laboratory technician, cannot claim his prescription glasses, even though he needs them to see what he is doing at work, or the safety goggles his employer provides. If he bought the goggles himself, he could claim them, because they reduce a real and likely risk of illness or injury at work. The same goes for face masks, face shields and sanitiser you pay for yourself.
Haircuts, cosmetics and skin care are private, and so are vaccinations, including flu shots, even when your employer requires them.
You can claim tools and equipment you use to do your job, for their work-related use, but not items your employer or someone else supplies. An item costing $300 or less can be claimed in the year you buy it, if you use it mainly for work, it is not part of a set costing more than $300 together, and it is not one of several identical or almost identical items costing more than $300 together. Above that, you claim its decline in value over its effective life.
In the ATO's examples, Meghan, a physiotherapist who often uses remedial massage, buys a $1,000 massage table that doubles as a treatment table. She uses it only for work, so she claims its decline in value over its effective life. Adam, a psychologist in a rehabilitation centre, carries his work laptop and patient documents between his office and home, because his job requires him to complete his case reports at home. He buys a $275 briefcase with a laptop compartment and only uses it for work, so he claims the whole $275 in the year he buys it.
You can also claim insuring and repairing your work equipment. Reference books and journals follow the same $300 tests. Books that cost more go into your professional library, claimed over its effective life, if their content is directly relevant to your duties.
The trip between home and your regular workplace is private, even if you live a long way away, work outside normal business hours, or are on call and get called in. One narrow exception is carrying bulky equipment that is essential to your job and can only be moved conveniently by car, when there is no secure storage for it at work and you are not carrying it just by choice.
You can claim driving directly between two separate jobs on the same day, as long as neither is your home, to and from an alternative workplace for the same employer on the same day, and from home straight to an alternative workplace. If you have no fixed place of work and continually travel from one work site to another before going home, your trips between home and work count too.
In the ATO's example, Breanna, a physiotherapist, uses her own car to travel from her regular workplace to training and to visit clients. Her employer pays her 80 cents a kilometre, and her income statement shows a $256 car allowance for 320 kilometres. She declares the $256 and, with trip records but no logbook, claims her 320 kilometres at 88 cents, or $281.60.
Cents per kilometre. 88 cents per kilometre for 2024-25 and 2025-26, and 91 cents for 2026-27, capped at 5,000 work kilometres per car per year. You still need a record of how you worked out the kilometres. The alternative is a 12-week logbook and your actual costs.
If your car is salary packaged under a novated lease, you cannot claim its running costs, because it is usually your employer that leases the car and makes it available to you. You can still claim work-related parking and tolls you pay yourself.
Parking at or near your regular workplace, and tolls between home and work, are private, but parking and tolls on work trips are deductible. In the ATO's examples, Nerida, an employee physiotherapist in a hospital, cannot claim the $50 a week she pays for on-site staff parking. Yasmin, an employee psychologist, travels from her regular workplace to give a presentation at a local university, so she can claim the parking she pays there. Fines are never deductible.
Self-education is deductible if it directly relates to your current job and, when you pay for it, maintains or improves the skills and knowledge you need for your current duties, or is likely to increase your income from that job. It is not deductible if it only relates to your job in a general way, or helps you get a new job or change jobs.
In the ATO's examples, Dennis, an optometrist, can claim the CPD he does to maintain his registration, because it improves and maintains the skills and knowledge he needs for his current role. Yui, a medical laboratory assistant working part-time in a hospital while she studies to become a paramedic, cannot claim her study, because it relates only in a very general way to her current job and will let her change jobs.
Fees for a Commonwealth supported place are not deductible, whether you pay upfront or through HECS-HELP, but fees for a full fee-paying place can be. Study loan repayments never are.
Seminars, conferences and training courses that relate to your work are deductible, including fares, registration, and accommodation and meals if you need to stay away overnight, unless your employer pays or reimburses you. If your main purpose is private and the conference is incidental, you can only claim direct costs such as registration. In the ATO's example, James, a chiropractor who becomes stressed keeping up with his work, cannot claim a time and stress management course, because it does not directly relate to the knowledge and skills he needs in his current position.
If you pay for your own professional supervision, the ATO's guide does not deal with it, so talk to us before you claim it.
Every allowance on your income statement goes in your return as income, but an allowance does not give you a deduction by itself. A car allowance, like Breanna's, can come with a deduction for expenses you actually have, while an on-call allowance is income with nothing to claim against it.
Food and drink during your normal working hours is private, even if you receive a meal allowance. Overtime meals are deductible only if you buy and eat the meal while working overtime, you receive a separate overtime meal allowance under an industrial law, award or agreement, not one folded into your salary and wages, and you declare it as income, even if it shows only on your payslips. The ATO's reasonable amount for an overtime meal is $38.65 for 2025-26 and $40 for 2026-27. If your claim is no more than that, you do not need receipts, but you must still be able to show what you spent and how you worked it out.
Entertainment and social functions are private, even compulsory ones, and even if you discuss work there. In the ATO's example, Benjamin pays to attend a monthly breakfast organised by the Pharmacy Guild, where he networks with industry colleagues and shares information about pharmaceutical products. He cannot claim it, even though the discussions relate to his work, because there is no direct connection to his work duties.
Phone, data and internet costs are deductible for the work-related use of your own phone or devices, but not a phone your employer provides and pays for. Keep your bills and a record of how you worked out your work use. A continuous four-week record can set your work-use percentage for the whole year.
Working from home counts only for the extra running costs it causes. The fixed rate method is 70 cents per work hour for 2024-25 and 2025-26. It covers energy, phone and internet, stationery and computer consumables, so you cannot claim those separately, and you need a record of your actual hours, not an estimate. As an employee you generally cannot claim rent, mortgage interest, rates or house insurance.
The rules for packaged work items change on 1 April 2027. From that date, work-related items such as laptops, phones, tablets, software, protective clothing and tools of trade will no longer be exempt from fringe benefits tax when they are provided through salary packaging. This became law in June 2026, so check with us before you package a device or work gear.
For the 2025-26 return you are lodging now: receipts for everything you claim, a record of your hours if you work from home, kilometre records or a logbook for car claims, and your income statement. Two shortcuts still apply this year. If your total work-related expenses, other than car, travel allowance and overtime meal allowance claims, are $300 or less, you can claim them without receipts. If your laundry claim, not counting dry cleaning, is $150 or less, you do not need written evidence of it. In both cases you still have to be able to show that you spent the money and how you worked out the figure.
From 2026-27, those shortcuts end for everyone. If you claim more than the standard deduction, you need written evidence, such as receipts, for your work-related expenses. Some exceptions continue, including travel allowance and overtime meal allowance claims within the ATO's reasonable amounts, and car claims at cents per kilometre. For those, you still need records that show how you worked out the claim. The ATO's current guidance is that if you use its per-load rates for laundry, you keep a record of how many loads you washed, whether each was a work-only or mixed load, and evidence that you paid for the laundry.
The ATO's myDeductions tool in their app is a reasonable way to keep records through the year. We cannot access it directly, but you can export from it and send it to us. A shared Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox folder works just as well.
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Can I claim my AHPRA registration?
Yes, the renewal each year, if you need it to keep working in your current job and you pay for it yourself. Your first registration is not deductible, because you need it to get the job. If you are moving from provisional to general registration, talk to us before you claim it.
Can I claim my scrubs and work clothes?
Scrubs, lab coats that protect your ordinary clothes and enclosed non-slip shoes are protective clothing, so you can claim them if you pay for them, and the cost of washing them. If your hospital supplies and washes your scrubs, there is nothing to claim. Business attire is private, even if your employer requires it.
Can I claim parking at the hospital?
Not where you regularly work. In the ATO's example, a hospital physiotherapist cannot claim the $50 a week she pays for on-site staff parking. Parking on a work trip is different: a psychologist who travels from her workplace to give a presentation at a university can claim the parking there.
Can I claim CPD and other courses?
Yes, if the course directly relates to your current job and maintains or improves the skills and knowledge you need for it. In the ATO's examples, an optometrist can claim the CPD he does to maintain his registration, but a chiropractor who is stressed by his workload cannot claim a stress management course. Study to change careers is not deductible.
I am a contractor or own a practice. Is this page for me?
No. This page is written for employees, so it does not cover you if you work on your own ABN or own a practice. A business consultation is the better place to start.
How does the $1,000 standard deduction work for allied health professionals?
From the 2026-27 return, you get up to $1,000 automatically, with no receipts needed. Any work expenses you claim reduce it, including your registration renewal and indemnity insurance, so it helps most when your work expenses are under $1,000. If they are over, claim them as normal and keep records for every dollar. Your union and professional association fees go on top either way.
Do you work with allied health professionals outside Perth?
Yes. We are based in Balcatta and we work with clients across Australia, by email or online appointment. See our pricing page for how the two options differ, or book an appointment.
There is no episode of the Aevum Accounting Podcast just for allied health professionals yet, but two are relevant to you. The Thousand Dollar Deduction (episode 54) explains the new standard deduction, and its written companion is The $1,000 Instant Tax Deduction: What It's Actually Worth. Your Tax Return, Your Way: Email or Appointment (episode 51) helps you choose how to lodge with us, and its companion is Email or Appointment.
If you own or run a practice, The Medical Clinic's GST Guide (episode 38) is the one for you, and it has a written companion. For advice on your own practice, book a business consultation.
We are a CPA practice and registered tax agent, TPB registration 26302591. You can check our credentials, meet the team, or book an appointment.
Also worth reading: tax accountants Perth for how we work with individuals, and our guides for nurses and midwives, support workers and fitness and sport employees.