Working From Home Tax Deductions

current to 30 June 2022

Working from home expenses have been one of the income tax deductions that more and more people are claiming with the increased working from home arrangements due to COVID. We have summarised the various methods below.

Employees

• To be eligible for these deductions, you need to actually be performing your work duties at home, not just coming home from work and doing a couple of extra tasks or checking emails.

• If you incur costs while working from home, and your employer reimburses these for you, you cannot claim them in your tax return. If you are not reimbursed by your employer, but you receive an allowance, you can claim the expenses, but you must also claim the allowance received as income (these should come through on your payment summary at year end).

Three Methods Available:

Expenses you cannot claim regardless of which method you choose:

• Coffee, tea, milk and other household items

• Costs related to your children’s education

Business Owners

• Claiming occupation costs can apply to you if your business is at home and you do the work at home, or your business doesn’t own or rent a separate premise, but does all the work from home e.g. a carpenter who does all their record keeping and admin at home.

• You will be able to claim one of the above methods, depending on your situation.

• If you have a company or trust the expenses must be claimed in your personal return against your employment income, they cannot be claimed in the company or trust