Home/What you can claim
Tax time 2026 · for your 2025–26 returnWhat you can actually claim
The ATO's guide runs to dozens of pages. Here's the short version — the rules that decide every claim, then the specific list for your line of work.
Three rules decide everything
Every deduction on this page has to pass all three. If a claim fails one of them, it doesn't matter how work-related it feels.
You paid for it
Out of your own pocket, and your employer didn't reimburse you. If the boss bought it or paid you back, it's not yours to claim.
It's tied to earning your income
There has to be a direct link between the expense and the money you make. Part work, part private? You only claim the work share.
You can prove it
Usually a receipt. A few things have shortcuts (below), but "I definitely spent it" isn't a record.
Your occupation
Pick your line of work. These are the claims the ATO expects to see — and the ones it knocks back most often.
- Scrubs, compulsory uniforms with the employer's logo, and occupation-specific clothing
- Protective gear — gloves, masks, sanitiser, safety glasses, non-slip shoes required for the job
- Washing that uniform at $1 a load on its own, or 50c a load mixed with the family washing
- Your annual AHPRA renewal (the yearly one, not your first registration)
- Union fees and professional association memberships
- Commission an agency takes out of shifts you actually worked
- Stethoscope, fob watch, nurse's pouch, medical kit — straight out if under $300, depreciated if over
- CPD courses, conferences, journals and textbooks that build on the job you're doing now
- Driving between two jobs on the same day, hospital to hospital, or out to a patient's home
- Overtime meal — only where an overtime meal allowance shows separately on your payslip
- The work share of your phone and internet
- Plain black pants, white shirts, ordinary shoes — conventional clothing, even when the ward insists on it
- Driving home to your regular hospital or facility, and parking once you're there
- Your first AHPRA registration
- Flu shots and other vaccinations — the ATO treats these as private
- Watches, haircuts, makeup and grooming
- Meals and coffees on a normal shift
- Study aimed at a different career
- Childcare, even for shift work
- Anything the hospital supplies, launders or pays you back for
The general categories
These apply no matter what you do for a living. Tap any one to open it.
The numbers for 2025–26
The rates and thresholds behind everything above.
| What | Rate or limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Working from home | 70c / hour | Fixed rate method; real hours recorded all year |
| Car — cents per km | 88c / km | Capped at 5,000 work kilometres per car |
| Car — logbook | 12 weeks | Valid for 5 years unless circumstances change |
| Instant write-off for work items | $300 or less | Over $300 is depreciated instead |
| Receipts needed once claims exceed | $300 total | Excludes car, travel and overtime meal allowance claims |
| Laundry without receipts | $150 | $1 a load work-only, 50c mixed |
| Phone without detailed records | $50 | Above that, a 4-week representative period |
| Overtime meal allowance | $38.65 | Reasonable amount per meal, allowance required |
| Truck driver meals away overnight | $128.00 / day | $31.15 breakfast · $35.55 lunch · $61.30 dinner |
| Keep your records for | 5 years | From the date you lodge |
Coming next year: the $1,000 instant deduction. From 1 July 2026 — so on the return you'll lodge after next June, not this one — working Australians can take a flat $1,000 work-related deduction with no receipts at all. If your real expenses come to more than $1,000 you keep claiming actual costs the way you always have. Donations, union and professional fees and income protection premiums can still be claimed on top either way.
The practical point: this year, and this year only, every receipt still counts from the first dollar. Keep them.
Ready to get your lodgements sorted?
Start your return online in a few minutes, or send us an enquiry and we will come back with a fixed fee and a realistic timeframe — usually the same business day.