What trips are work-related?
You cannot claim the cost of normal trips between home and work as the expense is private. You cannot claim it even if:
- You do minor tasks - for example, picking up the mail on the way to work or home
- You have to travel between home and work more than once a day
- You are 'on call' - for example, you are on standby duty and your employer contacts you at home to come into work
- There is no public transport near where you work
- You work outside normal business hours - for example, shift work or overtime
- Your home is a place of business and you travel directly to a place of employment.
You can claim the cost of trips between home and work where:
- You use your car because you have to carry bulky tools or equipment that you use for work – for example, an extension ladder or cello and there is no secure place for you to leave them at work
- Your home is a base of employment – you start your work at home and travel to a workplace to continue the work, or
- You have shifting places of employment – you regularly work at more than one site each day before returning home.
Travel between two workplaces
You can claim the cost of using your car to travel directly between two separate places of employment – for example, when you have a second job.
Example
Carolyn is a clerk at a large bank. During 2004-05 she used her own car to travel from her normal place of employment to her second job as a waitress. After finishing work as a waitress, she travels directly home.
The cost of travel from her normal workplace to her second job is an allowable deduction. However, Carolyn cannot claim the cost of traveling from her second job to her home.
You can claim the cost of using your car to travel:
- From your normal workplace to an alternative workplace - for example, a client's premises - while still on duty and back to your normal workplace or directly home
- From your home to an alternative workplace for work purposes and then to your normal workplace or directly home.
Example
Danielle is a clerk at a large department store in the city. In 2004-05 she was required to attend an important meeting at her employer’s other store in the suburbs and travels in her own car to that store. As the meeting finished late she traveled directly home from the meeting. Danielle can claim the cost of the journey from the city store to the suburban store and from the alternate workplace to her home.
Itinerant workers
You are considered to be an itinerant worker if you have shifting places of work and regularly travel to more than one work site each day before returning home.
The following characteristics will assist you in determining if your work is itinerant:
- Travel is a fundamental part of your work
- You have a web of workplaces in your regular employment ace of work
- Your regularly work at more than one site each day before returning home.
Other factors that may indicate itinerancy (to a lesser degree) include:
- You have a degree of uncertainty of location of your employment
- Your home is the base of your employment
- You can carry bulky equipment from home to different work sites
- Your employer pays you a travel allowance in recognition that you need to travel continually between different work sites.
Example 1
Joe is employed as a plumber's labourer and is dispatched to several sites each day. Joe usually travels directly from home to a different site each day to start work. As his duties require him to travel between sites on a regular basis, travel is an inherent part of his employment. Joe’s employment is regarded as itinerant.
Example 2
Jason who is employed as a builder’s labourer generally works at a single building site for two or three months before moving onto another site. Jason is not engaged in itinerant work because:
- Each work site is considered to be a regular or fixed place of employment
- There is no continual travel between work sites
- Travel is not a fundamental part of his duties, and
- There is no web of work places in his employment.
Estimating business kilometres
You must make a reasonable estimate of business kilometres. You need to satisfy the Tax Office that the travel was undertaken for income producing purposes and that your claim is calculated on a reasonable basis.
Example 1
Kymy is a secretary in an accounting firm. As part of her duties, she uses her car to travel daily from work to the bank, which is situated about 1.5 kilometres from her office, and then return to work.
Kymy estimates her travel during the financial year as three kilometres per day for five days a week for 48 weeks of the year. She uses this method to estimate that she traveled 720 business kilometres during the financial year for work purposes.
Kymy is considered to have made a reasonable estimate of her business kilometres.
Example 2
George is a mechanic who is required to regularly pick up spare parts from a supplier 6 kilometres from his workplace, that is, a 12 kilometre round trip. George bases his claim for a deduction on 3,120 kilometres based on five trips per week for 52 weeks of the year.
A check with George's employer reveals that the trip to the supplier is in fact only eight kilometres per round trip, that George made the trip no more than tree days per week and that George also had four weeks holidays.
George has not made a reasonable estimate and the claim should have been based on 1,152 kilometres, that is, three days multiplied by eight kilometres multiplied by 48 weeks.
Example 3
Alison is a nurse who uses her car to make home help visits. Alison guesses that she traveled approximately 3,500 business kilometres.
Alison has not made a reasonable estimate, and cannot claim a deduction for her car expenses. If Alison kept a diary record of her work-related travel, she could use this to make a reasonable estimate.