What Can I Claim on Tax in Australia 2025–26? (Complete Guide)

Tax return season is here. The ATO opens online lodgement from 1 July, and most Australians leave significant money on the table because they miss deductions they are legally entitled to. This guide covers everything claimable on your 2025–26 tax return — with the amounts, conditions, and record-keeping requirements you need to know.

Important: Tax rules are complex and your situation is individual. This guide covers general principles. For your own return, verify with the ATO website or a registered tax agent.

1. Work-Related Expenses — The Biggest Category

Work-related deductions are the most common and most valuable. To claim, you must:

• Have spent the money yourself (not reimbursed by your employer)
• The expense must directly relate to earning your income
• You must have a record (receipt, bank statement, or written evidence)

The $300 Rule

You can claim up to $300 in total work-related expenses without receipts — but you must have genuinely spent the money and it must be work-related. Above $300, you need written evidence for every dollar. Many people claim exactly $300 without evidence; many more have legitimate claims over $300 and miss them.

Tools and Equipment

Items you buy and use for work:

• Under $300: Claim the full cost immediately.
• $300 or more: Claim depreciation over the item's effective life (e.g. a $1,500 laptop for a teacher with 3-year effective life = $500/year, proportioned for business use %).
• Items used both for work and privately: only the work-use percentage is deductible.

Professional Memberships and Union Fees

Union dues, professional association fees, and subscriptions to trade or professional journals directly related to your occupation are fully deductible. Keep the receipt or member statement.

Income Protection Insurance

Premiums for income protection insurance are fully deductible — but only if the policy covers lost income (not TPD or life insurance). If your income protection is bundled into superannuation, you generally cannot claim the premiums directly (the super fund handles the tax treatment instead).

2. Working From Home Deductions 2025–26

The ATO offers two methods for claiming home-office costs. You choose one method per year — you cannot mix and match.

Fixed Rate Method: 70 Cents Per Hour

For 2025–26, the revised fixed rate is 70 cents per hour worked from home (up from 67c/hr in 2023–24). This covers:

• Electricity and gas for heating, cooling, and lighting your home office
• Internet (home portion used for work)
• Phone (data and calls used for work)
• Stationery and computer consumables

What you still need to claim separately: Depreciation of office furniture and equipment (desk, chair, monitor, laptop) can be claimed in addition to the fixed rate.

Records required:A diary, timesheet, or electronic log showing your actual hours worked from home during the income year. The ATO no longer accepts a "representative four-week period" for the fixed-rate method — you need a full-year record.

Actual Cost Method

Claim the actual work-related portion of each expense. Suitable if your actual costs exceed what the fixed rate gives you — typically for people with a dedicated home office used exclusively for work.

3. Car and Vehicle Expenses

You can claim work-related car use — but not ordinary commuting between home and your regular workplace.

What Work-Related Car Use Is

• Travelling between two separate workplaces in the same day
• Travelling from your workplace to a client or supplier
• Carrying bulky equipment essential to your job (no secure storage at workplace)
• Attending a work conference or training course at a different location

Two Methods

The logbook method is better if you drive more than 5,000 km for work per year or if your car costs are high. The cents-per-km method is simpler for occasional work travel.

4. Self-Education and Training Expenses

Self-education is deductible when it directly relates to your current employment — either to maintain your skills or improve your income-earning capacity in the same occupation.

• Course fees (TAFE, university, private provider)
• Textbooks, course materials, stationery
• Computer depreciation if used for study
• Travel to and from education institution
• Student services and amenity fees

Non-deductible:Courses for a new career you don't yet work in. A plumber studying to become an accountant cannot deduct accounting course fees.

HECS-HELP repayments are not deductible. Only the ATO study and training loan balance itself is governed by compulsory repayment thresholds — not a deduction. See the HECS-HELP Repayment Calculator for your repayment schedule.

5. Investment and Rental Property Deductions

Rental Property

If you own an investment property, deductible expenses include:

A tax depreciation schedule from a quantity surveyor (typically $400–$700 once) can identify thousands in annual depreciation claims that most landlords miss. It usually pays back in the first year.

Shares and Investments

• Interest on money borrowed to purchase income-producing shares or managed funds
• Brokerage fees (on disposal — added to cost base; on purchase — deductible)
• Investment-related subscriptions (financial publications, portfolio tracking tools)
• Accountant fees for investment-related tax advice

6. Charitable Donations

Gifts of $2 or more to an ATO-endorsed Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) are fully deductible. Rules:

• Must be a genuine gift — no benefit returned (raffle tickets, gala dinner tickets are not fully deductible)
• The organisation must be a DGR (check at ABR Lookup)
• You need a receipt for $2+
• Workplace giving through payroll: your employer's payment summary (income statement) shows the total donated — claim it in full

7. Tax Agent and Accounting Fees

Fees paid to a registered tax agent to prepare your tax return are deductible — but in the year you pay them, not the year the return relates to. If you paid a tax agent in 2026 to prepare your 2024–25 return, that fee is deductible in 2025–26.

8. Common Deductions by Occupation

9. What You Cannot Claim

• Ordinary commuting: Home-to-work travel (even if far or you use public transport). Only claimable if carrying bulky equipment or going to a different workplace.
• Private expenses: Groceries, gym, childcare, mortgage repayments, personal clothing.
• Conventional clothing: A suit bought for work, a pair of black trousers. If you could wear it outside work, it's not deductible.
• Meals: Meals while working (unless travelling overnight away from home for work).
• Fines: Traffic infringements, parking fines (even if incurred while working).
• HECS-HELP repayments: Compulsory repayments are not deductible.

10. Maximising Your 2025–26 Refund — Practical Tips

• Lodge through myTax in July: Most pre-fill data (income, interest, dividends, private health insurance) loads automatically after mid-August. Waiting a few weeks often means fewer corrections.
• Gather your receipts now: Use the ATO's myDeductions app to photograph receipts year-round — it exports directly to myTax.
• Check your income statement is finalised: Employers must finalise Single Touch Payroll by 14 July. Wait for the "Tax ready" label before lodging.
• Don't miss the WFH hours log: This is the most common reason the ATO disallows WFH claims. A simple spreadsheet or calendar record of days and hours worked from home is sufficient.
• Consider a tax agent if complex: Investment property, side income, shares, and multiple employers add complexity. Tax agent fees are deductible next year.

Related Calculators

• Australian Income Tax Calculator 2025–26 — income tax, Medicare levy, LITO, and take-home pay
• Tax Refund Estimator — enter your income and deductions for a refund estimate
• Working From Home Tax Deduction Calculator — fixed rate or actual cost WFH deduction
• HECS-HELP Repayment Calculator — compulsory repayment amount by income
• Salary Sacrifice Calculator — pre-tax super contributions and their tax impact
• Superannuation Calculator — project your super balance to retirement