Tax deductions for FIFO and mining workers
FIFO and mining work comes with tax rules that catch people out. The flights, the camp and the zone tax offset each have one, and the answers are not always the ones you would expect.
This page sets out what you can and cannot claim as a mining site employee in Australia, including fly-in fly-out (FIFO) and drive-in drive-out (DIDO) workers, checked against the ATO's own occupation guide. Where a rule has a catch in it, we have said so rather than left it out.
Aevum Accounting is a CPA practice and registered tax agent in Balcatta, Perth, working with FIFO and mining workers across Australia.
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 provided it, 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
Steel-capped boots, hi-vis vests and fire-resistant clothing you pay for yourself.
Hard hats, earplugs, gloves, safety glasses and other protective equipment.
Sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses, if you work outdoors in the sun for prolonged periods.
Laundry of protective clothing or a compulsory uniform.
Tools and equipment you buy for work. Outright at $300 or less, otherwise depreciated.
Renewing a licence, permit, card or ticket. The renewal, yes. The first one to get the job, no.
The extra cost of a special licence, such as a heavy vehicle permit.
Compulsory medicals your employer requires during your current job.
Union and professional association fees.
Travel between sites on the same day, or to an alternative workplace.
The leg from the pick-up point to site, in narrow cases, if you pay for it yourself.
Phone, data and internet, for the work-related portion.
Overtime meals, but only with an overtime meal allowance under an award or agreement.
Not deductible, however it feels
Getting from home to the airport or pick-up point, including interstate flights.
The drive from home to your regular site, however far it is.
The zone tax offset, if you do not live in a zone, however long you spend on site.
Everyday work wear, such as jeans, drill shirts and closed shoes, even if your employer requires it.
Anything your employer supplies, pays for or reimburses.
Your ordinary drivers licence, even if the job requires one.
The first licence, ticket or card you needed to get the job, and pre-employment medicals.
Gym and fitness costs, even if you must pass fitness tests.
Vaccinations, even when your employer requires them.
Food and drink during normal hours, even with a meal allowance.
Calls home, and music or podcasts to keep you going.
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 written evidence for every dollar you claim, not just the part above $1,000.
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.
For FIFO and mining workers, it depends on what your employer covers. If your flights, camp and protective gear are provided, your own costs may sit under $1,000, and the standard deduction does the work with no receipts. Keep your receipts until you know which side of the line you are on.
The trip from home to the airport or pick-up point is private. So are flights from where you live to that point, including interstate.
The leg from the pick-up point to site can be deductible, but only if you pay for it yourself and the pick-up point is, in effect, where your work starts. In the ATO's example, Brian flies from Sydney to Perth, then travels from Perth airport to Geraldton airport and on to site. He is rostered on duty and paid from the time he arrives at Perth airport, which the ATO treats as his regular work location. His trip to Sydney airport and his flights to Perth are private. The travel from Perth airport to site and back would be deductible, but only if Brian paid for it himself.
The ATO's ruling also looks at a combination of signs that the leg from the pick-up point is private too:
Your job only requires you to be at the work site.
You are rostered on and paid from when you arrive on site, not from the pick-up point.
You are free to arrange your own travel, from and to wherever you choose.
You are not under your employer's direction and control, and its workplace policies do not apply.
You do not work for the same employer on other projects after this one ends.
If your employer pays for that leg, there is nothing to claim either way.
If you drive in and out, the drive from home to your regular site is private, however far you live, and being on call does not change that. You can claim driving directly between separate workplaces on the same day, as long as neither is your home, and from home straight to an alternative workplace. In the ATO's example, Kevin, a site supervisor, can claim driving between mine sites and from the last site home.
If your employer provides your room and meals, there is nothing to claim. Overnight travel is only deductible when your work requires you to travel and sleep away from home, such as being sent to a remote mine site for three nights to carry out inspections. Choosing to sleep near work rather than go home is not travel for work, and relocating for work is private.
The ATO's mining guide says circumstances may be different for FIFO workers, without saying how. If you pay for your own accommodation or food on a FIFO or DIDO roster, talk to us before you claim it.
Food and drink during normal hours is not deductible, even with a meal allowance. Overtime meals are, but only if you receive an overtime meal allowance under an industrial law, award or agreement, it is shown separately on your income statement, you include it in your return, and you buy and eat the meal while working overtime. The reasonable amount is $38.65 a meal for 2025-26 and $40 for 2026-27, and for the 2025-26 return you need no receipts if you claim within it.
Allowances on your income statement are income, and an allowance does not give you a deduction by itself. A remote area allowance is paid for the conditions you work in, so there is nothing to claim against it.
A living-away-from-home allowance, or LAFHA, is paid when your job requires you to live away from your normal residence. The ATO's guide says it is not taxed as income and gives you nothing to claim, then adds that circumstances may be different for FIFO workers. If you are paid a LAFHA on a FIFO or DIDO roster, check it with us before you lodge.
The zone tax offset reduces tax for people who live in remote or isolated parts of Australia. Since 1 July 2015, it depends on where you usually live, not where you work. Before then, it was enough to have lived or worked in a zone.
To claim it, your usual place of residence has to be in a zone, and it has to have been your residence for 183 days or more in the income year. If it was less than 183 days, you may still be able to claim in some cases. The ATO says you are not eligible if you work in a remote area but do not live there, and gives fly-in fly-out workers as its example.
So a FIFO worker who lives in Perth and works on a Pilbara site cannot claim it, even after 183 days or more on site. In the ATO's example, Levi lives in Adelaide and works 12-day shifts in Alice Springs. He is there for 183 days or more, but Adelaide is his usual place of residence, so he is not eligible. The same applies if you drive in and out, because the test is where you usually live.
Living in a zone town is different. On the ATO's list, Karratha and Port Hedland are in Zone A, and Kalgoorlie is in Zone B. If that has been your residence for 183 days or more in the year, you can claim the offset. For the 2025-26 return, the base amounts are $338 for Zone A, $57 for Zone B and $1,173 for a special area, plus an extra amount if, for example, you look after a child under 21 or a full-time student under 25.
Protective clothing you pay for yourself is deductible, such as hi-vis vests, steel-capped boots and fire-resistant clothing. So is protective equipment, such as hard hats, earplugs, gloves and safety glasses, and the cost of repairing, replacing or cleaning it. In the ATO's example, Barry, an underground miner, claims his own safety glasses, hard hat and breathing mask. If your employer supplies it or pays you back, there is nothing to claim.
The ATO's guide uses work wear worn by mining site employees as its example of conventional clothing, and lists jeans, drill shirts, shorts, trousers, socks and closed shoes. None of it is deductible, even if your employer requires it or you only wear it at work. A compulsory uniform is different, but only if your employer strictly and consistently enforces it and it distinctly identifies you as working for a particular employer, or your employer's products or services.
Sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses, including prescription sunglasses, are deductible if you must work outdoors in the sun for prolonged periods, for the work share only. Other prescription glasses and contact lenses are private.
Laundry of protective clothing or a compulsory uniform can be worked out at $1 a load for work clothing only, or 50 cents a load if you mix in personal items. In the ATO's example, Kostas does three separate loads a week of employer-supplied protective uniforms for 48 weeks and claims $144. For the 2025-26 return, a claim of $150 or less needs no written evidence, but you must be able to show how you worked it out. That shortcut ends from 2026-27.
Tools and equipment you buy for work are deductible. An item that cost $300 or less is claimed in the year you buy it, as long as you use it mainly for work and it is not part of a set, or one of several identical items, that together cost more than $300. Above $300, you claim the decline in value over its effective life, reduced for any private use. Repairs count too. Tools your employer supplies or pays you back for are not yours to claim, and a tool allowance is income, so you claim what you actually spend, not the allowance.
You can claim the work-related share of your own phone, data and internet, with records of the total cost and how you worked out your work use. For the 2025-26 return, if your work use is incidental and your claim is $50 or less, you do not need to keep bills, but you do need to be able to show how you worked out the claim. Calls to family and friends are private, even while you are away for work, and so are music, podcasts and audiobooks, even if they keep you going on shift.
The first licence, permit, card or ticket you need to get the job is not deductible, because it is a cost of getting work rather than doing it. Renewing one you need to keep doing the job is deductible. Sean, a truck driver, cannot claim the licences he paid for before he started, but can claim maintaining his heavy vehicle permit and truck licence while he works. Your ordinary drivers licence is never deductible. The extra cost of a special licence, such as a heavy vehicle permit, is, unless your employer pays for it. In WA the licence renewal fee is the same for every licence class, so renewing a heavy vehicle licence usually adds nothing you can claim.
Medicals follow the same line. Pre-employment medicals and assessments are not deductible. Compulsory assessments and medical examinations your employer requires in your current job are. Vaccinations are not, even if your employer requires them, and gym and fitness costs are private, even if you must pass medical examinations and fitness tests to keep your job.
Union and professional association fees are deductible, and from 2026-27 they sit on top of the standard deduction.
Training and courses are deductible when they maintain or improve the skills you need for your current duties, or are likely to increase your income from your current job, but not if they are designed to get you a new job. Alphonse, a diesel mechanic, can claim required work health and safety training, but not a leadership course aimed at promotion. A first aid course is deductible if you are the designated first aid person.
You do not need to come in to lodge. We work with clients across Australia, by email or online appointment, so you can send everything through on your days off. We talk through the two options in Your Tax Return, Your Way: Email or Appointment (episode 51), and its written companion is Email or Appointment.
For the 2025-26 return you are lodging now: receipts for everything you claim, kilometre records or a logbook for car claims, and your income statement, which shows your allowances. Two shortcuts still apply this year. If your total work-related expenses, other than car, travel and overtime meal allowance claims, are $300 or less, you can claim them without receipts. If your laundry claim is $150 or less, you do not need written evidence of it. In both cases you still have to be able to show 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 for every work-related expense you claim. For laundry worked out at the ATO's per-load rates, its current guidance is to 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 flights to site?
Usually not. The trip from home to the airport or pick-up point is private, and so are flights from wherever you live to that point, including interstate. The leg from the pick-up point to site can only be claimed if you paid for it yourself and your work effectively starts there, as it does in the ATO's example of a worker rostered on and paid from Perth airport.
Can I claim the zone tax offset if I work in the Pilbara?
Only if you usually live in a zone. Since 1 July 2015, it depends on where you live, not where you work, so a FIFO worker who lives in Perth cannot claim it, even after 183 days or more on site. If you usually live in a zone town such as Karratha or Port Hedland, and it has been your residence for 183 days or more in the year, you can.
Can I claim my boots, hi-vis and work clothes?
Steel-capped boots, hi-vis vests and other protective clothing, yes, if you paid for them and were not reimbursed. Everyday work wear such as jeans, drill shirts and closed shoes, no, even if your employer requires it.
Can I claim my medicals and tickets?
Not the ones you needed to get the job. Pre-employment medicals and your first licence, permit, card or ticket are costs of getting work, not doing it. Compulsory medicals your employer requires during your current job are deductible, and so are renewals of the licences and tickets you need to keep working.
How does the $1,000 standard deduction work for FIFO and mining workers?
From the 2026-27 return, you get up to $1,000 automatically, with no receipts needed. Any work expenses you claim reduce it, so it helps most when your employer covers most of your costs. If your own expenses are over $1,000, claim them as normal and keep records for every dollar. Your union fees go on top either way.
Do you work with FIFO and mining workers 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.
Two episodes of the Aevum Accounting Podcast are most useful if you work away. Your Tax Return, Your Way: Email or Appointment (episode 51) covers the choice between lodging by email and booking an appointment, and its written companion is Email or Appointment.
For the new standard deduction, listen to The Thousand Dollar Deduction (episode 54), or read its companion, The $1,000 Instant Tax Deduction: What It's Actually Worth.
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 tradies, engineers and bus drivers.