Question

Australian tax law
If I am an employee who works from home due to COVID 19
may I be able to claim a deduction for expenses I incur relating to work?
(These can be additional running expenses such as electricity, the decline in value of equipment or furniture and phone and internet expenses.)

Answer 1

Claiming a deduction

To claim a deduction for working from home, all the following must apply:

• you must have spent the money
• the expense must be directly related to earning your income
• you must have a record to prove it.

This means you can't claim a deduction for items provided by your employer, or if you have been reimbursed for the expense.

If you are not reimbursed by your employer, but receive an allowance from them to cover your expenses when you work from home, you:

• must include this allowance as income in your tax return
• can claim a deduction for the expenses you incur.

Expenses you can claim

If you work from home, you can claim a deduction for the additional expenses you incur. These include:

• electricity expenses associated with heating, cooling and lighting the area from which you are working and running items you are using for work
• cleaning costs for a dedicated work area
• phone and internet expenses
• computer consumables (for example, printer paper and ink) and stationery
• home office equipment, including computers, printers, phones, furniture and furnishings – you can claim either th
• full cost of items up to $30
• decline in value (depreciation) for items over $300.

Under this method, you can claim 80 cents per hour for your additional running expenses from 1 March 2020 – 30 June 2020 that you have incurred. This covers a whole range of expenses related to doing your job:

• Electricity and gas expenses associated with heating, cooling, and lighting.
• Cleaning expenses, phone costs, and internet.
• Home office furniture, stationery, computers consumables, laptops, printers and tablets.