Can i claim accommodation on tax

You may also need to declare allowances you receive for accommodation. If you stay in the accommodation for both private and work purposes, you can only claim the portion of the costs that relate to use of the accommodation for work purposes. The allowance covers costs that you might incur when you travel away from your home within or outside Australia overnight to perform your work duties.

As a general rule, you must declare any accommodation allowance you receive as income in your tax return. You do not have to declare the accommodation allowance as income in your tax return if all of the following apply:. If you are not required to and don't declare your accommodation allowance as income, you can't deduct your accommodation, meal and incidental expenses — even if they are more than your allowance.

You can claim a deduction for accommodation expenses you incur while you are travelling away overnight for work duties if:. Jane started a new job with a company in Brisbane.

During the first year of employment, Jane must attend training at the company's head office in Sydney for a period of one week every couple of months. Jane stays at a hotel close to the head office in Sydney when she needs to be in Sydney for training. Jane receives a travel allowance from her employer to cover the cost of accommodation, meals and incidental expenses for the periods she stays in Sydney. The travel allowance isn't shown on her income statement.

Jane spends her travel allowance on accommodation, meals and incidental expenses when in Sydney for work. Jane chooses not to declare her travel allowance on her income tax return and doesn't claim her expenses. You can deduct your accommodation expenses as well as meal and incidental expenses , if all of the following apply. Ronaldo is an employee engineer. Ronaldo lives in North Queensland and works at his employer's office which is located near his home.

Ronaldo's employer takes on local engineering work as well as work in other parts of Queensland. On occasion, Ronaldo is required to work on project sites located that are located in central or western Queensland. When he works on these projects, he usually spends at least two to three days onsite. Ronaldo's employer pays him an allowance to cover his accommodation, meal and incidental expenses when he stays in a regional town overnight.

The allowance is shown on his income statement at the end of each income year. When Ronaldo travels away from his home overnight to work on a project site, he is travelling in the course of performing his work duties. Ronaldo can claim a deduction in his tax return for the amount he spends on accommodation and meals and incidental expenses when he travels overnight for work.

Ronaldo must also declare the allowance he receives from his employer in his income tax return. It takes more than two hours to travel between her home and her workplace, so Alanna rents a one bedroom apartment in the Melbourne CBD to stay in during the working week and returns home to Lorne for the weekends. Alanna can't claim the cost of renting the serviced apartment in the Melbourne CBD because the travel to Melbourne isn't part of her employment duties.

She has made the choice to live in Lorne. Ken is an employee paramedic. He lives in Sydney and is based at a station a few suburbs from where he currently lives. If you're required to travel away from home overnight for work purposes, on an interstate trip perhaps, you can claim a deduction for any meals, accommodation or incidental expenses which you incur, to the extent you are not reimbursed by your employer.

Some people who travel extensively are paid an allowance by their employer to cover those costs. Those allowances are taxable but a deduction can then be claimed for costs incurred. Each year, the ATO publishes lengthy lists of what it regards as reasonable amounts to spend on meals, accommodation and incidentals incurred on overnight trips.

Provided you've received an allowance from your employer and you've claimed less than the amounts specified by the ATO, you don't need to keep detailed records such as invoices and receipts.

If you spend more than the ATO reasonable amounts or you don't get paid an allowance , you must keep detailed records. This is an area that trips up many people with the ATO, who extensively audit these claims. Some people assume they can automatically claim the reasonable amounts specified by the ATO.

That is not how it works. You can claim the amount you actually spent; the ATO reasonable amounts only dictate whether or not you need to keep detailed records. Even if you haven't kept detailed records and aren't obliged to keep them because of the exemption , you still need to be able to prove that you incurred the expense.

That could involve keeping credit card statements or being able to prove that you were in a particular place at a particular time. As well as work-related travel, you might also be able to claim travel using the same rules outline above in these situations:. Phone Appointments available.

Find an office to book your appointment. Using your car for work If you're required to use your car for work, you are entitled to a deduction for the costs which you incur whilst at work.

Typical situations where you might be able to claim for using your car for work include: Traveling between workplace sites during the working day Traveling directly from one job to another where you have a second job provided you don't go home first Traveling to a business related meeting with a client, supplier or prospect Traveling to a work-related course There are two ways you can make this claim: Cents per kilometre.

You can claim a flat rate of 72c per kilometre for every business kilometre you cover previously 68c per kilometre before 30 June You'll need to keep a diary of all work-related journeys so you can work out how many kilometres you've travelled for work. This method can only be used for claims up to 5, km's per vehicle. This is a way of claiming the actual expenses you've incurred in running your vehicle for work, such as fuel, servicing, insurance and depreciation.

Deduction claims usually work our larger using the logbook method but the record-keeping requirements are more onerous. And does this travelling ever involve an overnight stay away from your home? If the answer is yes, then there's good news - you may be able to claim some of these costs back. Before you can claim for travel or accommodation, you need to consider why you made the journey in the first place. Was it just for business, such as to visit a client or to pick up your new business cards?

And if it was for business, was it a one-off journey, or one that you undertake more frequently? Alternatively, was there a private element to your travel? For example, did you stop on your way home from a client meeting to do your weekly shop or another non-work-related chore? Before you can work out if you can claim for your travel, you need to establish what the primary purpose of the journey was.

If it was mixed i. If your journey was primarily for business, and any private use of the journey was incidental, you can put the full cost of this travel into your business accounts.

Simon is a web designer. He travels by train from his home in Birmingham to visit a client in Brighton. While he is there, he has a walk by the sea. The purpose of Simon's journey to Brighton was for business. The private element, his walk by the sea, was purely incidental. Simon therefore claims the full cost of his train ticket in his accounts.

If your journey included both business and private elements, but you can split out the private element, then you would include only the business cost in your accounts. Jessica is a business consultant. She lives in Glasgow but has several clients who are based in Manchester.

She travels to Manchester and stays there for two nights in order to attend meetings with her clients. She then decides to extend her stay to three nights so that she can attend a Premier League football match.