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Working from Home – What can you Deduct?

As the workforce increasingly favours flexibility and good work-life balance, companies throughout Australia (and indeed the world) offer their employees the chance to work from home; while others set up their own business to take greater control over their working lives. With this flexibility in working from home, there are certain things that you can deduct to reduce your taxable income, as well as a few things that you can’t. Here are a few things to look for if this applies to you:

Working from home

If your employer gives you the freedom to work from home for a portion of your working hours, there are certain things that are tax deductible, for example internet and phone usage. If you are planning on claiming this, remember that the ATO could potentially ask you to prove that you actually did incur that expense, so make sure you are keeping tabs on your real usage.

Tracking this usage can be done in a few ways. In the example of phone and internet usage, you could look at the time you spent making work calls and the data you used for work-related downloads as a portion of your total bill. Another way to do it is to complete a log book or diary over 4 weeks to track how much you use those items, and then apply the work percentage over those 4 weeks to your annual expense. To put that into context, if you found that over a 4-week period your work usage on your phone equated to 15% of total usage, you could claim 15% on your annual phone expense as a home office expense, assuming your circumstances are consistent across the tax year.

Home office expenses

Another common claim when working from home is for your dedicated work area (e.g. study or home office). The deduction you can make with this is for the running costs of your home, such as a portion of your electricity expenses; as well as the depreciation in value of equipment in that space (e.g. office chairs, printers).

Keep in mind that any claim can only be for the work-related portion of the expense. This means that if other members of your family use your home office, or you use it for personal activities as well, you may only claim a portion of the total expense. Running expenses can be claimed at 45c per hour (fixed rate) or as an actual expense.

The 45c per hour method requires you to keep a log book over 4 weeks, as detailed above. If you are going to claim as an actual expense, you need to document the total expenses for lighting, cleaning, heating, and cooling for your home for the year, calculate the floor area of the relevant part of your home as a percentage of the total floor area, and then work out the percentage of the year that you used that part of your home exclusively for work.

Below is a quick look-up table to see what you may or may not be able to claim, depending on your work circumstances:

If you have any questions about the above, need help with your tax or need advice, don’t hesitate to contact McKinley Plowman today on 08 9301 2200 or visit www.mckinleyplowman.com.au.

Resources

http://members.knowledgeshop.com.au/updates/2018/09/27/1018-your-knowledge-working-from-home-what-deductions-can-you-claim/

written by:

Ben Teti

Ben’s career began in April 2008 specialising in taxation and business advisory by managing a small portfolio at a young age. He joined McKinley Plowman in 2014 as a Senior Accountant and with his passion for business and assisting clients in achieving their objectives he has progressed to a Business Services Manager, and more recently being appointed as an Associate Director.

As a qualified Certified Practising Accountant, his areas of expertise include but are not limited to, assisting clients with new business start-ups, advising on business structures, tax planning, business valuations and management reporting across many industries.

Ben prides himself on being part of his client’s business journey in taking them from where they are now and working towards where they want to be.