Tax deductions for sales and marketing employees
In sales, a lot of the tax rules come down to what you do with a client. Driving to see them can be claimed, and so can the parking when you get there. Taking them to lunch cannot, even if you talk business the whole time.
This page sets out what you can and cannot claim as a sales representative, account manager, business development manager, marketing employee or sales and marketing manager 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. It is written for employees. If you work on your own ABN as a sales contractor or marketing freelancer, or run your own business, start with a business consultation instead. If you work in a shop as a sales assistant or on the checkout, our retail workers guide is written for you.
Aevum Accounting is a CPA practice and registered tax agent in Balcatta, Perth, working with sales and marketing employees across Australia.
Approved by Ben De Rosa, CPA. Last checked against the ATO's guidance on 26 September 2026.
What sales and marketing employees 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
Driving from your office to a client, head office or a branch.
Driving from home straight to a client's premises that is not your regular workplace.
Every work trip, including from home, if you have no fixed workplace and travel between clients.
Parking and tolls on work trips, unless your employer pays you back.
Accommodation, meals and incidentals you pay for on overnight work trips.
Trade fairs, conferences and courses that relate to your current job.
A laptop you buy for work, for the work-related portion.
A hi-vis vest you must wear on client sites.
A compulsory uniform with your employer's logo, if you paid for it, and washing it, even if your employer supplied it.
The work share of your phone, data and internet.
Working from home, at 70 cents per hour for 2024-25 and 2025-26, or actual costs.
Union and professional association fees.
Not deductible, however it feels
Client breakfasts, lunches and dinners, even if you talk business.
Sporting events and cocktail parties, including tickets you give a client.
Networking breakfasts, even if your employer encourages you to go.
Golf and other recreational club fees, even if you meet clients there.
The drive between home and your regular office, even with your laptop.
Parking at or near your regular office.
Business suits and shirts, even if your employer has a strict dress code.
Haircuts, cosmetics and grooming, even with a grooming allowance.
A weekend allowance. It is income, with nothing to claim against it.
Staying on after a work trip to go sightseeing.
Moving costs when your employer transfers you.
A course for personal reasons, such as stress management.
Food and drink in your normal working hours, even with a meal allowance.
Your drivers licence, even if the job requires one.
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 sales and marketing employees, it depends on how much you drive for work. If you are office based and your employer supplies your laptop and phone, your work expenses may sit well under $1,000. Using your own car to visit clients can take you past it, like the $3,722.40 car claim in the ATO's example below. Keep your receipts until you know which side of the line you are on.
Your salary and wages go in your tax return, including commissions and bonuses, and so does every allowance on your income statement. An allowance does not give you a deduction by itself. One that compensates you for an unpleasant part of the job, such as a weekend allowance, has nothing to claim against it. One for expenses, such as a vehicle allowance, can come with a deduction, but only for deductible costs you actually have.
In the ATO's examples, Emerson, a sales manager for a pharmaceutical company, declares the weekend allowance he gets when a regional trip keeps him away for 2 weeks, but cannot claim against it. Bronwyn, a sales and marketing manager for a clothing chain, declares her $3,384 car allowance, paid at 80 cents a kilometre for 4,230 kilometres. With no logbook, she claims $3,722.40 at the ATO's 88 cents a kilometre for 2025-26, not the allowance amount.
An allowance that shows only on your payslips, such as an overtime meal or travel allowance, does not need declaring if you spend all of it on deductible expenses and do not claim them. The allowance must also be within the ATO's reasonable amount. If your employer pays you back the exact amount you spent, that is a reimbursement. You do not declare it and you cannot claim the expense.
The trip between home and your regular workplace is private, even if you live a long way away or work outside normal business hours. In the ATO's example, Sue, a sales manager, takes her laptop to and from work in her car, but cannot claim the trips, because a laptop is not bulky equipment. If you must carry bulky samples or display gear and there is no secure storage for them at work, talk to us before you claim the trip.
You can claim driving directly between separate jobs on the same day, as long as neither is your home, between workplaces for the same employer on the same day, such as from head office to a branch, and from home straight to a client's business premises that is not your regular work location. In the ATO's example, Spencer can claim the tolls and parking he pays driving from his office to a client, but not the car park next to his office.
If you have no fixed place of work and continually travel from one work site to another before going home, the trip from home counts too. In the ATO's example, Patricia, a sales manager, spends her days visiting clients and only goes to the office to finish paperwork when it suits her. She can claim her trips between home, her clients and the office.
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. If you drive a car your employer owns, neither method applies, so talk to us before you claim its costs.
Parking at or near your regular workplace, and tolls between home and work, are private. So is your drivers licence, even if the job requires one.
You cannot claim entertainment or social functions, or the travel to and from them, even if they are compulsory or you discuss work there. That includes work breakfasts, lunches and dinners, sporting events, gala nights and cocktail parties. Your own food and drink during normal working hours are private too, even with a meal allowance.
In the ATO's examples, Rachael cannot claim a networking breakfast her professional association runs for women in sales and marketing, even though her employer encourages staff to go. Leroy, a business development manager, cannot claim the lunches, cocktail parties and dinners where he meets potential new clients, even though he talks about work there.
The ATO's sales and marketing guide does not deal with gifts for clients. Two other ATO guides, for real estate employees and recruitment consultants, let an employee entitled to earn commission or a retainer claim gifts bought for work purposes, such as a hamper, wine or gift vouchers, but not someone on a fixed salary with no entitlement to commission, and never gifts that are entertainment, such as tickets to a live sporting event. If you buy client gifts yourself, talk to us before you claim them.
Golf and other recreational club fees are private, even if you meet clients there. The ATO's real estate guide uses a salesperson's golf club membership as its example.
Everyday clothing is private, even if your employer requires it and you only wear it at work, and the ATO's own example is the business attire worn by a sales rep. In its example, Lachlan, a sales and marketing manager, cannot claim buying or washing the business shirts and suits he only wears to work, even though his employer has a strict dress code.
You can claim what you pay to buy, hire, repair or replace four kinds of work clothing: protective clothing, occupation-specific clothing, a compulsory uniform, and a non-compulsory uniform your employer has registered on the Register of Approved Occupational Clothing. A compulsory uniform is one your employer strictly and consistently enforces and that distinctly identifies you as working for them, or identifies their products or services. Clothing your employer buys, repairs or replaces is not claimable. In the ATO's example, Danijela, a sales representative for a manufacturing equipment company, can claim the hi-vis vest she must wear on some client sites.
Washing claimable clothing can be worked out 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. In the ATO's examples, Nick, a sales manager, can claim buying and washing the logo shirts he must buy, but not his smart black pants. He washes the shirts in mixed loads twice a week for the 40 weeks he works, and claims $40. Mike cannot claim the logo shirts his employer provides, but can claim washing them.
Haircuts, cosmetics, and hair and skin care products are private, even with a grooming allowance, and so are prescription glasses and contact lenses.
You can claim accommodation, meals and incidentals when your work requires you to sleep away from home overnight, but not a room or meals your employer provides or pays you back for, or meals on a same-day trip, such as flying interstate and home again that day. If a work trip keeps you away for 6 or more nights in a row, you generally also need to keep a travel diary.
In the ATO's example, Kristen, a sales and marketing manager for an Australian swimwear brand, goes to fashion shows in the USA and Europe each year and often stays on to sightsee and visit friends. Her employer pays her flights, accommodation and event entry fees. She can claim the meals and incidentals she pays for while working, but nothing for the extended stays.
A travel allowance on your income statement must be declared. If you receive one and your claim is within the ATO's reasonable amount, you do not need receipts, except for overseas accommodation, but you must still be able to show you spent the money. Claim more and you need written evidence for all of it. From 2026-27, travel allowance expenses you claim count against the $1,000 standard deduction, and the reasonable amount exception still applies.
Seminars, conferences, courses and trade fairs that relate to your work are deductible, including fares, registration and, if you stay overnight, accommodation and meals, unless your employer pays. In the ATO's example, Kostas, a retail sales manager, claims the $500 he spends on entrance fees, travel, accommodation and meals for a trade fair that keeps him up to date with his field. If a trip is mainly a holiday, you can only claim direct costs such as registration.
Moving for work is private, whether your employer transfers you or you take up a new job.
You can claim equipment you use for work, such as a laptop, for its 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 and it is not part of a set, or one of several identical or substantially identical items, costing more than $300 together. Above that, you claim its decline in value over its effective life.
In the ATO's example, Alan, a sales manager who regularly works from home, uses his $1,200 laptop 60% for work, so if its decline in value is $600 in the first year, he claims $360.
Phone, data and internet costs are deductible for the work-related use of your own phone or devices. In the ATO's example, Fergus finds from his itemised account that 120 of his 300 calls over 4 weeks, or 40%, are for work, so he claims 40% of his $49 monthly plan for the 10.6 months he works, $207.76. Keep your bills and a record of how you worked out your work use. A phone your employer provides and pays for is not claimable.
Working from home counts only when you do your job there, not minimal tasks such as occasionally checking emails. You can claim your actual extra running costs, or use the fixed rate method, 70 cents per work hour for 2024-25 and 2025-26, with a record of your actual hours. The fixed rate covers your phone, internet, energy and stationery, so you cannot also claim those separately.
Self-education is deductible if it directly relates to your current job and either maintains or improves the skills and knowledge you need for it, or is likely to increase your income from it. It is not if it only relates to your job in a general way, or helps you get a new job. In the ATO's examples, Kieran, a computer salesperson, can claim a business administration course, because his employer has agreed to promote him to assistant manager if he completes it successfully. Brianna, a sales manager, cannot claim a stress management course she takes to help with a family situation. Study loan repayments are never deductible, and neither are fees under HECS-HELP.
Union and professional association fees are deductible, and if they are on your income statement, that is your evidence. A first aid course is deductible if you are a designated first aid person and need it to help in emergency situations at work, unless your employer pays for it or pays you back.
For the 2025-26 return you are lodging now: receipts for everything you claim, your income statement and payslips, which show your allowances, kilometre records or a logbook for car claims, a record of your work-use percentage for your laptop, phone and internet, and a record of your hours if you work from home. 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. 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 driving to see clients?
Yes, from your office to a client's premises, or from home straight to one that is not your regular workplace. If you have no fixed workplace and travel between clients before going home, the trip from home counts too. The drive between home and your regular office is private, even if you carry your laptop.
Can I claim taking clients to lunch?
No. Work breakfasts, lunches and dinners are entertainment, and the ATO does not let you claim them, even if they are compulsory or you discuss work. In the ATO's example, a business development manager cannot claim the lunches and dinners where he meets potential new clients.
Can I claim gifts for my clients?
The ATO's sales and marketing guide does not deal with client gifts, so talk to us before you claim them. Two other ATO guides, for real estate employees and recruitment consultants, allow gifts bought for work purposes only for employees entitled to earn commission or a retainer, not those on a fixed salary. Gifts that are entertainment, such as tickets to a live sporting event, are not deductible.
I sell on commission through my own ABN. Is this page for me?
No. This page is written for employees, including those paid by commission. If you work as a contractor or freelancer on your own ABN, or run your own business, a business consultation is the better place to start.
How does the $1,000 standard deduction work for sales and marketing employees?
From the 2026-27 return, you get up to $1,000 automatically, with no receipts needed. Any work expenses you claim reduce it, including car expenses, 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 sales and marketing employees 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 sales and marketing employees yet, but one is 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.
This page is written for employees. If you run your own business, Clients, Gifts and the Footy looks at client gifts, lunches and footy tickets from a business owner's side, and its companion is Are Client Gifts Tax Deductible?. If you contract or freelance through an ABN, listen to The Consultant's Tax Trap: PSI and the ATO Traffic Light System (episode 42).
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 real estate agents, recruitment consultants and office workers.