Are the following Tax Deductible?

• 

  juventino on 21/07/2014 - 00:32

  +3

  Lol how about you claim tax reduction on how much time you spent planning about your work…You know, something like you value your time at $30/hour and just make it up that you spend two hours preparing and planning for your work everyday?

• 

  neil on 21/07/2014 - 00:48

  +1

  See other work-related expenses for deductions.

  • You can deduct sunscreen.

  • Checking pay from your Internet wouldn't be considered work but if you check work email or do some other task regularly then you can deduct a portion of your Internet. Same with home phone. Sounds like it would be a tiny percentage.

  See this page. If you have a work uniform that requires laundering you can claim this as an expense. Also, union fees are deductible.

  Unfortunately, given you can't drive a bus from home (yet), I don't think you will be able to justify any more.

  Note, this is my interpretation of the page you should could call ATO with any question.

• 

  Davo1111 on 21/07/2014 - 01:19

  +1

  Fairly sure you can't count travel to and from work as a tax deduction.

  Some of those things, i.e. phone you might be able to make a proportion of the total a TD. But i doubt that. Maybe overall rental is work requires you to have a phone.

  You can't claim electricity, gas etc.

  • 

    neil on 21/07/2014 - 01:30

    Fairly sure you can't count travel to and from work as a tax deduction.

    True. However, you may be able to claim deductions using your personal car driving between bus depots/worksites.

    Claimed travel must be part of your working day – e.g between offices, special trips to the post office or bank (not including stop-offs on the way home) or from one job site to another – not from home.
    Source

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  RockyRaccoon on 21/07/2014 - 02:09

  Note also that the ATO is this year targeting work related expense claims (all occupations), so you may also find your whole tax return under scrutiny and maybe interviewed to justify claims.

  BTW

  sunscreen(prevent dark skin-driving under sun)

  This isnt claimable for that reason, and it doesnt stop that anyway.

  Its for preventing cancer forming from the UVA/B rays. Which saves the govt medical claims.

• 

  SaberX on 21/07/2014 - 04:22

  All 'tax deductions' have to hvae a nexus with your producing of assessable income e.g. your wages.

  It's why you could claim home office expenses , internet,computer etc if say 10% of your total laptop usage time was working remotely from home to finalise work.

  Given you drive a bus if you were ever audited I'm fairly certian you coudln't argue at all that any of the majority of those deductions are valid. Whether you use your computer, office etc expenses to 'print your pay check' is none of the tax office's business to them, and it has no direct link to producing your assessable income - you driving the bus does.

  So no you cannot claim them.

  Again what borrowing expenses and bank fees are you referring to/ Again ask yourself if they're relevant to earning your income. They aren't so again no.

  Sunscreen - MAYBE that is the only one I would argue there might be a case. There was something about certain occupations and sunscreen e.g. construction workers, things used in their line of work,and given you drive a bus all the time this MAY also be valid. But I don't know sufficiently enough about this court case. But really, how much would sunscreen cost you per year? Barely enough to warrant the time thinking about it. You can claim up to $300 work related expenses that you reasonably know, without an actual receipt. So there is room to 'account' for items such as sunscreen. ANything past that and you need a receipt, if you get what i mean ;)

  Contrary to what Neil says - no you cannot claim transport to and from your work.Or between two jobs. Otherwise the whole government would be subsidising every tax payers bus, train, petrol fares to and from. The only travel you'd deduct is that incurred on the job. How you get to and from one or more jobs to another is non-deductible.

  • 

    SaberX on 21/07/2014 - 04:23

    Although caveat is as neil said if you were working on the same employers job but were required to commute to different areas to continue their work on that same day, then arguably the travel time yes. But I assume bus drivers do not??

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 21/07/2014 - 07:23

    Actually travel between two places of work is deductible

    https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Ded…

    I wouldn't hesitate to claim the sunscreen. Don't forget to claim costs of cleaning your work uniform too.

    The other items on your list forget about it unless you say had an investment property you were claiming borrowing expenses against.

    • 

      SaberX on 21/07/2014 - 17:34

      Uniform if its a compulsory work uniform e.g. logo etc. just plain shirts, or otherwise un-marked company logo uniforms would not be on there.

      Besides you can get up to $300 work related expenses claimed without a receipt, unless you have a huge amount of laundry you can probably only claim under $300 anyway and are better off just claiming close to(just under) the $300 so you don't need receipts to substantiate your laundry and any other work related expenses you're claiming.

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  usabiz on 21/07/2014 - 08:48

  If you need sunglasses when driving a bus, sunglasses may be tax deductible

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  backpaqer on 21/07/2014 - 08:52

  Everything is claimable if you have the right story…but you're best seeing a tax professional as they will be able to guide you best as to what stories the tax office will consider fact and which ones will be obvious fiction (where they want their/our money back). A bus driver would have a normal set of deductions in a return - if it looks a little unusual…then you will be invited to explain…if you have been telling some stretched truths - you may find it a little stressful.

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  dp1 on 21/07/2014 - 09:43

  Don't you get the bus for free to and from work anyway? My dad used to drive a bus and we only got a car after he retired and the free travel stopped.
  Same thing for driving between 2 depots-why wouldn't you use a bus for that (either driving or as someone else's passenger)?
  If you have been on any training courses for work the travel is deductible though (including parking charges).

• 

  mskeggs on 21/07/2014 - 09:46

  As most have said, a lot on that list falls into the bucket I would say is not claimable.
  However, you can claim whatever you want, you will get a refund and at a later date you may be audited.
  When the audit came, your attempts to justify these deductions would likely fail, in my opinion.
  The result of that is you would have to pay the tax back, pay a penalty, and have the costs of the audit in time, gathering info and possibly tax professional's assistance.
  It may be that you are a working holiday maker, about to leave Australia never to return. In this circumstance, it might be reasonable to go for it - assuming you aren't bothered by the ethical issues.
  Bear in mind also, the tax office runs software to look for anomalies. If the deductions for bus drivers across Australia average $150, but yours are $650, it will flag you for closer scrutiny/audit.
  Only you know all your circumstances. If you have share investments, or a rental property or other sources of income that might require the use of the Internet or similar, it would then be more reasonable to claim, say, 20% of your Internet bill for those purposes. Of course, if you legitimately only have an internet connection to trade shares, and can produce logs or similar to back that up, by all means claim 100%. The ATO treat people individually, and will take into consideration unusual circumstances.
  What you are saying here, though, is that your circumstances are pretty ordinary, so I'm afraid you won't be able to claim extraordinary deductions.