Tax deductions for office workers and public servants
If you work in an office, your work expenses are probably small ones: some hours at home, part of your phone bill, a course, a membership. Each has its own rules, and from 2026-27 a new standard deduction may mean some of them are not worth claiming at all.
This page sets out what you can and cannot claim as an office worker or a public servant in an office role in Australia, 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 office workers and public servants 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 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
Working from home, at 70 cents per hour for 2024-25 and 2025-26, or actual costs.
Phone, data and internet, for the work-related portion.
A laptop, desk or chair you buy for work, for the work-related portion.
Union and professional association fees. If the amount is on your income statement, that is your proof.
Renewing a practising certificate or accreditation you need for your job. The renewal, yes. The first one, no.
Study that directly relates to the job you hold now, not a future one.
Seminars, conferences and training courses that relate to your work.
Books and journals connected to your work.
Driving from home straight to a meeting at another office, or between offices on the same day.
Parking, tolls, taxis and ride-share on those work trips.
Overnight work travel your employer has not paid for.
Overtime meals, but only with an overtime meal allowance under an award or agreement.
Not deductible, however it feels
The drive between home and your office, even after working late.
Parking at or near your regular office.
Business attire, even if your employer expects it.
Prescription glasses, even for all-day screen work.
Haircuts and grooming products.
Work lunches and social functions, even when your employer encourages you to go.
General newspapers and magazines.
Tea, coffee and milk when you work from home.
Rent, mortgage interest or rates when you work from home as an employee.
Moving costs when you are transferred.
A laptop or phone your employer provides.
Study loan repayments, and Commonwealth supported course fees even if you pay them upfront.
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.
If your work expenses come to a few hundred dollars, you land on $1,000 whether you claim them or not. In the ATO's own example, Yui has $550 of work-related expenses. If she claims them, her standard deduction drops to $450, and the ATO's conclusion is that it is easier for her not to claim them at all.
These count against the $1,000 if you claim them:
working from home, phone and internet, and stationery
self-education
car expenses, tolls, and travel between separate workplaces
travel allowance expenses, uniforms and laundry
the decline in value of a laptop or other equipment you use for work
These you claim on top, with records:
union fees and professional association memberships
income protection premiums
gifts and donations
the cost of managing your tax affairs, such as a tax agent's fee
It reduces your taxable income. It is not a tax offset or rebate, so it does not take $1,000 off your tax bill.
The year to watch is the one where you are close to the line. A new laptop, a course or some work travel can take you past $1,000. If there is a chance of that, keep your receipts until you know which side you land on.
You can claim working from home expenses if working at home adds to your running costs.
The fixed rate method is 70 cents per work hour for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 income years. It covers electricity and gas, phone and internet, stationery and computer consumables, so you cannot claim any of those separately as well. You can still claim the decline in value of your computer, desk and chair.
The fixed rate needs two kinds of records. First, a record of the actual hours you work from home across the whole income year, such as a timesheet, roster or diary. An estimate is not accepted. In the ATO's example, Wanda can claim the 136 hours she recorded, but not the hours she only estimated. Second, at least one bill or receipt for each type of expense the rate covers.
The actual cost method works out the real extra cost of each expense, split fairly between work and private use. It needs receipts and bills, and a record of your hours, either for the whole year or for a continuous four-week period that shows your usual pattern.
Under either method, you cannot claim tea, coffee, milk or anything your employer pays for. As an employee you generally cannot claim occupancy expenses such as rent, mortgage interest, rates or house insurance, unless part of your home is a place of business.
Phone, data and internet costs are deductible for the work-related portion. You need your bills and a record of your work use over a representative four-week period. In the ATO's example, Sebastian makes 30 work calls out of 300 over four weeks, so he claims 10% of his $49 monthly bill, $53.90 over 11 months. 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.
A laptop, desk, chair or other item you buy for work can be claimed in the year you buy it if it costs $300 or less, you use it mainly for work, and it is not part of a set, or one of several identical items, costing more than $300 in total. If you also use it privately, you claim the work share. In the ATO's example, if Brinn used his $249 headphones 80% for work, he could claim $199.
Above $300, you claim the decline in value over the item's effective life, and only the work share. In the ATO's example, Byron's $1,200 laptop is 60% work use and declines in value by $600 in the first year, so he claims $360.
You cannot claim a laptop, phone or other equipment your employer provides.
You cannot claim the drive between home and your regular office. That is private travel, even if you stay back late or start early.
You can claim driving from home straight to a meeting somewhere other than your regular office, and driving between two offices for the same employer on the same day. In the ATO's example, Ruby drives from her city office to a meeting at a suburban office and then home, and can claim both trips. If you are assigned to another office for three months or more, it will usually become a regular place of work, and the trips from home become private.
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. The rate covers all your car expenses, so you cannot claim fuel, registration or servicing on top. You still need a record of how you worked out the kilometres.
Logbook. A 12-week logbook establishes your work-use percentage, and you keep evidence of the 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 office is not deductible. Parking, tolls, taxi and ride-share fares on work trips are. In the ATO's example, Alan cannot claim parking at his office, but can claim it at a training facility.
Moving for a transfer is private. In the ATO's example, Remy, a policy analyst transferred from Brisbane to Rockhampton, cannot claim his relocation, rent or living costs.
Food and drink during your normal working hours is not deductible, even if you get a meal allowance. Neither are work breakfasts, lunches, dinners or social functions, even when they are compulsory or you discuss work.
Overtime meals are deductible only if you buy and eat the meal while working overtime and receive an overtime meal allowance under an award or agreement, shown separately on your income statement. You claim what you spent, not the allowance. In the ATO's example, Craig gets a $20 award allowance each time he works overtime and buys 20 overtime meals at $15 each, so he claims the $300 and has to be able to show he spent it. For the 2025-26 return, you do not need receipts if you claim no more than the ATO's reasonable amount of $38.65 a meal. The 2026-27 amount is $40.
If you travel overnight for work, you can claim accommodation, meals and incidentals your employer has not paid for or reimbursed, but not if you choose to sleep near work rather than go home.
If you receive a travel allowance, the ATO's reasonable amounts are not an automatic deduction. You claim what you actually spent. For the 2025-26 return, the reasonable amounts only set how much you can claim without receipts, and only if you received a travel allowance and spent the money on deductible travel. Overseas accommodation is not covered, so you need receipts for it. You still have to be able to show you spent it on work travel, how you worked out the claim, and that you declared the allowance as income. Claim more than the reasonable amount and you need receipts for the whole claim, not just the part above it. From 2026-27, travel allowance expenses also count against the $1,000 standard deduction.
Self-education is deductible if, when you pay for it, it directly relates to your current job and either 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 is designed to get you a different job.
Study for a promotion sits on that line, and the ATO's examples show where it falls.
Adam, an administration officer, enrols in a course to increase his knowledge and his chances of promotion. He cannot claim it, because it does not relate directly to his current job and is designed to get him work as a marketing manager.
Whitney, an assistant office manager, can claim a course that maintains or improves the skills she needs for her current duties.
Ranita can claim a course because it results in an increase in income from her current job.
So a course that trains you for a different job fails, even if a promotion is the reason. A course that makes you better at the job you have, or lifts your pay in it, can qualify.
How you pay matters. In a Commonwealth supported place, your student contribution is not deductible, whether you pay it upfront or through HECS-HELP. In a full fee-paying place, your fees can be deductible, including fees paid with a FEE-HELP loan. Study loan repayments are never deductible.
Seminars, conferences and training courses that relate to your work are deductible too, unless your employer pays for them.
Union and professional association fees are deductible, and your income statement can be your evidence. If you need a practising certificate or accreditation for your job, the renewals are deductible and the first one is not. In the ATO's example, Leon, a mediator, cannot claim his initial accreditation, but can claim its renewal every two years.
Books, journals and digital subscriptions are deductible where the content is sufficiently connected to your work, such as a marketing journal or a data analysis book in the ATO's examples. General newspapers, news services and magazines are private.
Business attire is conventional clothing, and it is private, even if your employer expects it and you only wear it at work. In the ATO's example, Lena cannot claim her suits.
You can claim a compulsory uniform that your employer strictly and consistently enforces and that identifies you as working for them, and a non-compulsory uniform registered on the Register of Approved Occupational Clothing. In the ATO's example, Mika can claim shirts with the employer's logo, but not the black pants and shoes worn with them. Laundry of claimable clothing can be claimed at $1 a load for work clothing only, or 50 cents a load if you mix in personal items.
Prescription glasses and contact lenses are private, even for all-day screen work, as the ATO's Raj example shows. Protective glasses you wear to reduce a real and likely risk of illness or injury at work are different. Haircuts, shavers and other grooming products are private too.
If your employer offers salary packaging, a laptop, phone or tablet you use mainly for work is currently exempt from FBT, generally limited to one item with the same function each FBT year unless it is a replacement.
That changes on 1 April 2027. From that date, work-related items provided through salary packaging, including laptops, phones, tablets and software, are no longer exempt from FBT. This became law in June 2026, so check with us before you package a device.
For the 2025-26 return you are lodging now: receipts for everything you claim, a record of your hours if you work from home, your phone and internet bills with a record of your work use, 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 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. If you take the standard deduction instead, you do not need records for the expenses it covers, but you still need them for union fees and anything else you claim on top. Either way, you generally need to keep your records for five years from the date you lodge.
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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How much can I claim for working from home?
For the 2024-25 and 2025-26 income years, 70 cents per hour under the fixed rate method, which covers energy, phone, internet, stationery and consumables. You need a record of your actual hours, not an estimate. The alternative is claiming actual costs, which needs more records.
Can I claim my laptop?
Yes, for the work-related portion, if you bought it. Over $300, you claim it over its effective life. You cannot claim a laptop your employer provides, and the FBT exemption for salary packaged work devices ends on 1 April 2027.
Is study for a promotion deductible?
It depends on the course, not the reason. If it improves the skills you need in your current job, or is likely to increase your income from that job, it can be. If it is designed to get you a different job, it is not.
I get a travel allowance. Do I need receipts?
For the 2025-26 return, not if your claim is within the ATO's reasonable amounts, except for overseas accommodation. You still have to be able to show you spent the money on work travel and declared the allowance. You claim what you spent, not the reasonable amount, and over it you need receipts for the whole claim.
How does the $1,000 standard deduction work for office workers and public servants?
From the 2026-27 return, you get up to $1,000 automatically, with no receipts needed. Any work expenses you claim reduce it, so if yours come to a few hundred dollars, claiming them only adds paperwork. If they are over $1,000, claim them as normal and keep records for every dollar. Union and professional association fees go on top either way.
Do you work with office workers and public servants 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 office workers, but three 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 salary package, listen to FBT Power Plays: The Boss-Level Guide to Salary Packaging (episode 30).
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 teachers, engineers and real estate agents.