I’m in the process of thinking about my tax return. I’ve recently started working in a new job where I work from home usually 1 day a week. I’m still living with my parents and I don’t pay rent. I however have purchased office equipment (desk, monitor, etc) which is used when I do work at home in my study area. My question is will I be eligible to claim a deduction on my tax? The ATO website doesn’t go into enough detail about claiming this.
Claiming Working from Home Expenses
Plotus on 03/07/2018 - 18:38
Comments
You're not entitled to claim a portion of of occupancy expenses (power, gas etc) if you work at home one day a week. You can claim 45 cents an hour plus direct costs like office equipment and stationery.
Agree. I think for me I claim 15 hours x 40 weeks = 600 hours * 0.45 = $270
I have also claimed my 1080TI graphics card, 34" monitor, 8TB hard drives, some nice pens as stationary, a gaming chair etc.Anything under $300 is claimed in that FY straight away, the rest is straight line depreciated (66.67%) over three years.
Oh yeah, don't forget to claim your internet and mobile costs.
What did your accountant say?
however have purchased office equipment (desk, monitor, etc) which is used when I do work at home in my study area.
Any equipment you buy for the purpose of work, you can claim a deduction for the decline in value of that furniture to the extent that it relates to your work activity. That’s likely to lead to a write-off of the cost over a period of several years (the “effective life” of the asset).
For smaller purchases under $300 and fall under the category of tools, equipment and assets,you can claim an immediate deduction for their cost, but if they are over $300 or they form part of a $300+ set of items, you can only claim back their depreciated value.
You can use Home office expenses calculator to see how much you can claim back.
https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/income-and-deductions/ded…
Or do what I do…. just let your accountant figure it out for you.
go see a good tax accountant. No stress for you. There are complex things like calculating the square metre area of your office space as a percentage of your total house area and claiming that percentage of your utilities, however then discounting that apportionment based on your 1 day per week work from home frequency as a sum of weeks of the year….its terribly complex and not very exciting
Tax Accountant costs are deductible….and they handle the complex calculations for your deductions. If you ever get audited, send them to your accountant….no stress ……its a no brainer…
Best of Luck
I work from home 2 days a week.
I doubled it up by studying a course that my work recognised.
I claimed 2/7th of my electricity, telephone and internet.
claimed my new macbook pro. printer. paper. text books. etc etc
there is also a (small) hourly rate for using your home office of about 45 cents per hour.
https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Tax-Return/2017/Tax-retur…
I read somewhere that if you purchased a computer, and claimed a portion of it back as 'working from home' expenses, you needed to be able to justify why you couldn't use the computer work has (likely) provided you. Any truth to this?
You can claim a portion of the office furniture that's work related as well as some of the cost of electricity, gas etc but all up it will not be much at all