Your Route to a Better Refund: The Bus Driver's Guide

CORRECTION NOTICE, updated 22 September 2026 Two things about this page. First, the transcript was missing entirely. Until today this field read "Coming Soon!" and nothing else, while the episode itself had been live and indexed. The full transcript is now published below. Second, it was fact-checked against the ATO's bus drivers occupation guide before being published, and four things needed correcting. They are marked inline. Where the recording and this page disagree, this page is right. 1. THE CAR RATE HAS CHANGED. The episode says 88 cents per kilometre. For the 2026-27 income year it is 91 cents, set by LI 2026/19. It was 88 cents for 2024-25 and 2025-26. The 5,000 kilometre cap per car is unchanged. 2. THE LAUNDRY RULE IS GIVEN AS HALF A RULE. The episode offers $150 as though it were an amount you can simply claim, and quotes only the $1 per load rate. The $150 is a record-keeping concession: below it you do not need records, but you still have to have spent the money and be able to show how you worked the claim out. And the rate is 50 cents per load, not $1, where work clothing is washed together with personal items. 3. OVERTIME MEALS HAVE THREE CONDITIONS, NOT TWO. The missing one is that the allowance has to appear on your income statement or payment summary as a separate allowance. It is the condition the ATO uses to deny these claims. 4. THE WORKING WITH CHILDREN CHECK IS NOT AN ATO EXAMPLE. The episode attributes it to the ATO. The bus drivers guide does not mention working with children checks anywhere. The rule the guide does give is that compulsory pre-employment assessments are not deductible, and compulsory assessments your employer requires you to take in your current employment are. Worth saying what held up, because most of this episode did. Several passages track the ATO's guide almost word for word: the alternative depot example, the heavy vehicle permit, cleaning products where keeping the bus clean is one of your duties, and logbooks used to record student behaviour or vehicle damage. The split shift point is right as well. Verified against the ATO's bus drivers occupation guide and LI 2026/19. ---------- Welcome, to the Podcast! Our newsletter made easy! Please note, this podcast features AI-generated voices for your hosts, Mia Taylor and Leo Baker, bringing you expert insights from owner, Ben De Rosa, at Aevum Accounting. Each week, we're here to help you confidently navigate the ins and outs of Australian tax – whether it's for your individual finances, or the complexities of your business. We'll cut through the jargon to give you strategies for compliance, smart planning, and that ultimate peace of mind. So, if you're looking to understand your obligations, maximize your financial position, or simply gain clarity on your money matters, you're in the right place. Let's get started with our review of the week! Alesha Kolbe said "Can't recommend Ben & the team at Aevum highly enough! They are extremely professional, efficient, and friendly and make everything easy to understand" Thank you for the amazing feedback Alesha! We love hearing from our clients and a positive review gets our podcast started on the right foot. And we are back! Leo Baker here, and today, we are talking about the people who get our communities moving: our bus drivers! That's right, Leo. It’s a profession that’s absolutely essential, but one that people might not think has many tax deductions. But as we've seen, the details can make a huge difference. They sure can. We actually had a bus driver come in to get their tax done with us recently, and it was a perfect example. On the surface, you'd think it’s a pretty straightforward return. But when we dug into his year, the picture completely changed. He mentioned that even though he has a main depot, he’s often sent to start his shift at different depots all over the city. And that, right there, is a key point. As we'll discuss, that travel from home to an alternative depot is often deductible. Exactly! And it didn't stop there. A couple of times a year, he does charter routes to the country for tour groups and has to stay overnight. And because of the long and sometimes split shifts, he gets paid an overtime meal allowance, which he just assumed was tax-free money. Another fantastic point. The overnight travel costs can be deductible, and while the meal allowance itself is taxable, the cost of the meal you buy on that overtime shift can often be claimed as a deduction against it. It just proved that no matter what your job is, you need to know the specific rules. His tax refund was significantly better than he expected, all because we knew what questions to ask. That's a perfect way to start today's discussion. Let's break it down for all the bus drivers out there, starting with the foundation of any claim: the Three Golden Rules from the ATO. First, you must have spent the money yourself and not have been reimbursed. Second, the expense must directly relate to earning your income. And third, you must have a record, like a receipt, to prove it. [CORRECTION: a record, usually but not always a receipt. Laundry claims of $150 or less and total work expenses of $300 or less have their own concessions, and stating the rule absolutely puts drivers off legitimate small claims.] Your money, for your job, with proof. Got it. Okay, let’s get right into the big one from our client's story: car expenses. Can a bus driver claim the drive to the depot? This is the most common point of confusion. The ATO is very clear that you cannot claim the cost of normal trips between your home and your usual workplace. This is true even if you work split shifts or have to start very early in the morning. That trip is considered private travel. Okay, so the daily commute is out. But what about our client's situation, driving to different depots? That's where the exceptions come in. You can claim the cost of using your own car when you drive from your home directly to an alternative workplace. So if your usual depot is in Joondalup, but you're told to start your shift from the depot in the CBD for the day, the trip from your home to the CBD depot is deductible. The same rule applies if you have to travel between different depots for the same employer during the day. That's a huge one. How do you actually calculate the claim? You have two options. The first is the 'cents per kilometre' method. For the financial year, you can claim 88 cents per kilometre for up to a maximum of 5,000 work-related kilometres. [CORRECTION: the rate has changed since this was recorded. For the 2026-27 income year it is 91 cents per kilometre, set by LI 2026/19. It was 88 cents for 2024-25 and 2025-26. The 5,000 kilometre cap per car is unchanged, and the rate covers everything, so you cannot claim fuel, servicing, insurance or depreciation on top of it.] It’s simple, and you don’t need written receipts, but you do need to be able to show how you worked out the kilometres. And what’s option two? Option two is the 'logbook method'. This is more work, but it often results in a much larger claim, especially if you do a lot of driving to alternative depots. You need to keep a logbook for 12 continuous weeks, recording every trip, both work and private. From that, you work out your work-use percentage, and you can then claim that percentage of all your car's running costs, including fuel, insurance, servicing, and even the depreciation of the vehicle itself. Okay, let's move on to the second point from our client: overnight travel. What are the rules when a driver has to do a country tour and sleep away from home? When you travel away from your home overnight in the course of your duties, you can claim your travel expenses. The ATO's example is a two-day bus tour, which is perfect for this discussion. These expenses can include your meals, accommodation, and any incidental costs you incur while you're away for work. What if the company gives you a travel allowance? That's a critical point. Receiving an allowance does not automatically mean you can claim a deduction. You still have to prove that you were away overnight, that you actually spent the money yourself, and that the travel was a required part of your job. And of course, you can't claim anything that your employer paid for directly or reimbursed you for. Makes sense. Let’s talk about clothing. I assume the company uniform is deductible? Yes, but we need to be specific. You can’t claim the cost of 'conventional clothing', even if your employer requires you to wear it, like plain black pants or a standard collared shirt. However, you absolutely can claim the cost of buying, repairing, and cleaning a compulsory uniform that is distinctive to your organisation, like a shirt with the company logo embroidered on it. What about things like steel-capped boots? That falls under protective clothing. You can claim the cost of any clothing or footwear that has features to protect you from specific risks of injury at work, so things like steel-capped boots or hi-vis vests are deductible. And don't forget laundry! Even if you don't have receipts, you can claim up to $150 for laundry expenses based on the ATO's guide of $1 per load for just work clothes. [CORRECTION: two things are wrong here. The $150 is a record-keeping concession, not an amount you can simply claim. The ATO's words are that if your laundry claim is $150 or less "you don't need to keep records", but you still have to have incurred the cost and be able to show how you worked the claim out. And this gives only half the rate: it is $1 per load where the load contains only work clothing, and 50 cents per load where you mix personal items in with it.] Fantastic. Now for the third point from our client's story: overtime meals. He was getting an allowance but didn't know he could claim the meal itself. That’s a very common misunderstanding. To be clear, you can't claim the cost of food or snacks you eat during your normal working hours. That's a private expense. But there is a specific exception for overtime. If you receive an overtime meal allowance paid under an industrial award or agreement, and that allowance is included in your taxable income, you can then claim a deduction for the cost of the meal you actually buy and eat on that overtime shift. [CORRECTION: there is a third condition, and it is the one that gets claims denied. The ATO requires all of the following: the allowance is paid under an industrial law, award or agreement; the allowance is shown on your income statement or payment summary as a separate allowance; and you include it in your tax return as income. This passage covers the first and the third and skips the second. Also worth knowing: if you claim up to the ATO's reasonable amount you do not need to keep receipts, but claim more than that and you must keep receipts for all of it.] It's all about those specific conditions. What about the driver's licence itself? It’s the most essential tool for the job! It is, but the ATO considers the cost of getting or renewing a standard driver's licence to be a private expense, so it’s not deductible. However, there is a very important distinction. You can claim the *additional* cost you incur to renew a special licence or condition that you need to perform your duties. A perfect example for a bus driver would be renewing their heavy vehicle permit. So you can’t claim the base licence, but you can claim the extra bit that lets you drive the bus. What about medical checks? Same principle. You can't claim any pre-employment medicals you need to get the job in the first place. But you *can* claim the cost of any compulsory medical examinations you need to keep your current job. A good example given by the ATO is a working with children check, which many drivers would need. [CORRECTION: the ATO's bus drivers guide gives no such example. It does not mention working with children checks anywhere. The rule the guide does give is the one in the line above: compulsory pre-employment assessments and medical examinations taken "to obtain employment as a bus driver" are not deductible, while "compulsory assessments and medical assessments your employer requires you to take in your current employment" are. Whether a working with children check sits on the deductible side depends on which of those it is for you. An initial check to get the job will not be. Do not rely on it being the ATO's own example, because it is not.] Okay, let's do a lightning round. What are some other common but maybe less obvious deductions for a bus driver? There are a few great ones. You can claim the work-related portion of sunglasses and sunscreen if your job requires you to be exposed to the sun for long periods. You can claim cleaning products for the bus if you're required to keep it clean and your employer doesn't provide them. You can also claim diaries or logbooks used to record things like student behaviour or vehicle damage. And of course, union and professional association fees are deductible. What about phone and internet? Yes, you can claim the work-related portion of your phone and internet costs, but you must have records to show your work usage. The best way is to keep a diary for a representative four-week period to work out your percentage of work use, which you can then apply to your bills for the year. Fantastic. It’s amazing how it all adds up. It really proves that getting professional advice can make a world of difference. It certainly does. Every client's situation is unique, and our job is to apply the specific tax rules to their circumstances to make sure they're not paying a dollar more in tax than they need to. For a bus driver, it’s about understanding their travel patterns, their uniform requirements, and all the little costs they incur just to do their job. It’s about knowing the route to a better tax return! A perfect place to end. And that brings us to the end of another episode! We hope today's discussion has provided you with valuable insights and helps you navigate your financial world with greater confidence. Before we go, a quick but important reminder: The information and strategies shared on this podcast are for general informational purposes only and do not constitute specific tax or financial advice. Everyone's situation is unique, and tax laws are complex and constantly evolving. For personalized advice tailored to your specific individual or business needs, we always recommend consulting with a qualified professional. You can connect with our team at Aevum Accounting – visit our website to learn more about our services, including detailed tax guides for various occupations, and how we can support your financial journey. Thank you so much for tuning in! If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing, leaving us a review, and sharing it with anyone who might benefit. Your support helps us reach more Australians. Until next time, stay savvy, stay proactive, and keep building your financial future! From all of us at Aevum Accounting, goodbye for now!