My employer uses an app for clocking in and out, leave apps, shift offers and adjustments and communications. Can I claim my sim plan as a tax deduction as it's required to do the above. It's sub $200 so not a lot but required as above. Thanks
Tax Deduction Question
Geoff01 on 31/07/2023 - 11:24
Comments
I don't think there is an issue with claiming a percentage of your mobile phone costs if your mobile phone is required for your work.
The issue will be justifying the percentage you claim as Jimony suggests.Errr…
Seriously, is it worth your time trying to claim this? Its like what, max 1% of your usage? So you gonna try and claim tax back on $2? Thats like 80c
Not even that much… more like 8cents
Can I claim my sim plan as a tax deduction as it's required to do the above. It's sub $200 so not a lot but required as above. Thanks
You can claim whatever you want at tax time, it is only when audited will you have to justify the claim you made.
It is also not as simple as claiming the entire 'sim plan' because you only use it a tiny bit for work. You can claim the % of the time you use the phone for work.
From what you are saying, you'll be lucky to claim any more than 5-10%, but it's really more like 1% if you are honest. How many hours a week do you use it for work vs using it for everything else? Lets say 1 hour a week for work, and you use your phone 2 hours a day for other things. This is 15 hours of phone usage a week in total and the work part would be ~6% of that use, so you can claim 6% of the $200 which is a $13 claim.
Now double the personal time and half the work time, which would be more inline with most peoples usage, and it is ~1.7%, or $3.40 claim.
The remember a claim just means you get tax back on that amount. So assume 30% tax rate, you'll get a whopping $1.02 tax back on your $3.40 claim.
You can claim the full amount if (and only if) you have a work SIM and do not use that SIM at all for any non work purposes. Some people have dual SIMs and run one work SIM and one personal SIM, in which case the work SIM is fully deductible. However, if you only have one plan then you have to show you never use that plan except for work purposes
Once you fail this threshold, as everyone else says you then go straight to only being able to deduct the percentage of work use. Unfortunately you dont get to say 'I need the phone for work so its all deductible' if you use the phone for personal reasons
My mobile number is my work contact number, I use my phone for email, calls, text, teams, etc all day and even I only deduct about 30% as a "reasonable" cost based on real world tracking (pretty easy to track how much data is used for specific apps and while connected to the work VPN)
Yours would be more like 1%. Enjoy your $2 deduction.
C'mon man.
Thanks everyone. It was a last minute thought and couldn't find anything specific on the ATO to my usage type, but yes not worth it at all..
You can claim anything, as long as you can prove it.
On a sub $200 (I assume a year) plan, the deduction would be literally a few dollars if that, unless you are literally using the app hours a day M-F etc.