Office furniture and equipment

Eligibility to claim office furniture and equipment

To claim a deduction for office furniture and equipment:

• You must use them in connection with performing your work duties.
• You must work out if you can claim the cost of the item in the income year you buy it or the decline in value over its effective life.
• You must have a record of your expenses and use of the item.

When you use the items for both private and work purposes, you need to apportion your deduction. You can only claim the work-related use of the item as a deduction.

You can also claim the work-related portion of:

• costs you incur to repair and insure your office furniture and equipment
• interest expenses you incur on money you borrow to buy these items.

What you can't claim

You can't claim:

• your use of office furniture and equipment for private purposes
• expenses for office furniture and equipment where someone else supplies the item for your use.

Types of office furniture and equipment you can claim

You can claim office furniture and equipment that you use for work, such as:

• office desk
• office chair
• desk lamp
• bookshelves
• power boards and charging cables.

You may also be able to claim computers, laptops and similar devices you use for work.

How to calculate your office furniture and equipment deduction

Office furniture and equipment are generally depreciating assets which decline in value over time.

How you treat and work out your claim will depend on if the item cost:

• $300 or less
• More than $300.

You need to apportion expenses if you use the office furniture and equipment for work and private purposes.

$300 or less

An immediate deduction is available for items that cost $300 or less, if you use them more than 50% of the time for a work purpose. You must satisfy the conditions of 4 tests to claim an immediate deduction.

More than $300

You can claim a deduction for the decline in value over the effective life of the item, if the item cost more than $300.

You claim the deduction in your tax return as other work-related expenses. For instructions on how to complete your tax return, see Lodgment options for preparing your tax return.

Calculating your deduction

Work out your deduction for the decline in value for a depreciating asset, using our online Depreciation and capital allowances tool.

Depreciation and capital allowances tool

You can manually calculate the decline in value of a depreciating asset using either the prime cost method or diminishing value method.

Keeping records for office furniture and equipment

You must keep records to support your deduction for office furniture and equipment, such as:

• receipts for items you buy
• a diary or other record that shows how you work out your percentage of work-related use.

If you are claiming the decline in value of an asset over its effective life, you also need to keep records that show how you calculated decline in value.

For more information on general record keeping requirements and formats, see records you need to keep.