For information about what expenses you claim as car expenses (item D1) and what expenses you claim as travel expenses (item D2), and some examples of trips you can and cannot claim, see Car and travel expenses.
This question is about travel expenses you incur that are directly related to your work as an employee. They include:
- public transport, including air travel and taxi fares
- bridge and road tolls, parking fees and short-term car hire
- meal, accommodation and incidental expenses you incur while away overnight for work
- expenses for motorcycles and vehicles with a carrying capacity of one tonne or more, or nine or more passengers, such as utility trucks and panel vans
- actual expenses (such as any petrol, oil and repair costs) you incur to travel in a car that is owned or leased by someone else.
If your employer provided a car for your or your relatives' exclusive use and you or your relatives were entitled to use it for non-work purposes, you cannot claim a deduction for work-related expenses for its direct operation, such as petrol, oil and repairs. This is the case even if the expenses relate directly to your work. However, you can claim expenses such as parking and bridge and road tolls for work-related use of the car.
Reasonable allowance amounts
If your travel allowance was not shown on your payment summary and was equal to or less than the reasonable allowance amount for your circumstances, you do not have to include the allowance at item 2 provided that you have fully spent it on deductible work-related travel expenses and you do not claim a deduction for these expenses.
Did you have any work-related travel expenses?
No |
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Yes |
Read on. |
Answering this question
You must have written evidence for the whole of your claim.
If you wish to claim meal, accommodation and incidental expenses you incurred while away overnight for work, use table 3 in Special circumstances and glossary to determine what evidence you need. For more information about written evidence, see Keeping your tax records.
If you received assessable income from your work as an employee outside of Australia that is shown on a PAYG payment summary - foreign employment, you must claim any work-related travel expenses you incurred in earning that income at this item.
If you received assessable foreign employment income that is not shown on a PAYG payment summary - foreign employment you must claim your deductions against that income at item 20 Foreign source income and foreign assets or property.
Completing your tax return
Step 1
Add up all your deductible travel expenses.
Step 2
Write the total amount at B item D2.
Tax tips
Make sure you keep accurate records of travel to make future claims.
Find out more
For information on:
- shifting places of employment, see Taxation Ruling TR 95/34 - Income tax: employees carrying out itinerant work - deductions, allowances and reimbursements for transport expenses
- reasonable allowance amounts, see Taxation Determination TD 2014/19 - Income tax: what are the reasonable travel and overtime meal allowance expense amounts for the 2014-15 income year? together with Taxation Ruling TR 2004/6 - Income tax: substantiation exception for reasonable travel and overtime meal allowance expenses.
- award transport allowance payments, see What are award transport payments?
Where to go next
- Go to question D3 Work-related clothing, laundry and dry cleaning expenses.
- Return to main menu Individual tax return instructions.
- Go back to question D1 Work-related car expenses.