Claiming Travel from Home to Work Office Due to Covid-19

Lcptnawesome on 19/05/2020 - 17:24

Hi all,

Sorry if this has been asked before.

I was reading a 7news article on claiming travel expenses for tax.

https://7news.com.au/business/finance/atos-tax-advice-why-co…

Can anyone tell me if this paragraph below is accurate?

"With home now your second place of work, you can also claim car expenses whenever you drive between there and your actual office at 66 cents per kilometre."

I can't really find anything on the ATO website that newly supports this claim due to Corona.

I've had to occasionally make the trip into the office to get files and equipment, so I'd like to be able to include this travel if I can, but I'm just unsure if you can now consider your home as a second place of work?

Thanks for any advice.

Cheers

Financial

Comments

  • Dumax on 19/05/2020 - 17:35
    +6

    I think what they're likely referring to is that home is now your "usual" place of work and having to travel to a different workplace is now "travel between two workplaces".

    However you might want to see an accountant if you want to claim this as you can claim "travel between two separate places of employment, but not if one of the places is your home" unless your work is "itinerant ". Also, the deduction for cars is actually 68 cents per KM.

  • JimmyF on 19/05/2020 - 17:40
    +4

    I can't really find anything on the ATO website that newly supports this claim due to Corona.

    Standard site to site travel tax rules apply. You can only claim km once you get to your 'site' of work, and then from there to another 'site' and back again etc.

    So if your home is now your primary place of work and you have to travel into the office for a face to face meeting for example, then you can claim this travel.

    But only while your home is your primary place of work. If you start working from home 2 days a week, you can't claim the travel going to the office the other 3 for example.

    I use to have a job that was work from home, the contract said my primary place of work was at remote/home based. I use to claim all travel when I had to go into the office and back, as I was going 'site to site'.

    Anyhow with all things tax you can claim anything under the sun that you like, but you'll only find out if its legal when you get audited :)

  • Nalar on 19/05/2020 - 17:59

    Don't forget the .52c/hour expense for working from home.

    • kerfuffle on 19/05/2020 - 18:00
      +1

      It’s 80 cents if working from home due to COVID-19

      • Nalar on 19/05/2020 - 18:01

        Even better!

      • azngamer on 19/05/2020 - 18:11
        +1

        I believe the 80c/h only works if you are not portioning out your phone plans/internet, depreciation in PC and office furniture. Not sure if I have interpreted it correctly. Can someone confirm?

        https://www.ato.gov.au/General/COVID-19/Support-for-individu…

        • Avo on 19/05/2020 - 18:14
          +2

          That's correct

          Also you don't have to use the 80 cent rule if you don't want to. The 52 cent rule is fine if you want to claim the work usage of all your other costs.

      • Hybroid on 19/05/2020 - 18:54

        Interesting. So everyone, depending on situation, can claim max of $0.8 * 8 hrs/day * 5 days/week * 17 weeks(A) = $544

        (A): from 1 March 2020 until 30 June 2020.

        There are three ways you can choose to calculate your additional running expenses:

        shortcut method ─ claim a rate of 80 cents per work hour for all additional running expenses

        https://www.ato.gov.au/General/COVID-19/Support-for-individu…

        • dasher86 on 20/05/2020 - 07:23
          +1

          Who works only 8 hours a day?

  • Almost Banned on 19/05/2020 - 20:09
    +1

    I was just thinking about this issue.
    With COVID proving that many of us can work just as easily and effectively from home, perhaps it is time to revisit the idea that travel to and from the office is a private expense.
    Equally, with so many of us dressing down for work it is also probably time to revisit 'traditional' work attire like suits and ties being classified as non-specific.

  • cptnawesome on 11/06/2020 - 17:04

    Just an update to this.

    I've just read another article that now says you can't claim travel due to covid.

    "Ms Foat said most of the time, employees couldn’t claim the cost of travelling to and from work – and working from home due to the health crisis wouldn’t affect that rule.

    “For example, if you are working from home because of COVID-19 but need to go to your regular office one day per week, your home to work travel is still private travel and cannot be claimed,” Ms Foat said."

    Source:
    https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/tax/ato-reveals-big-ch…

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