Laptop on kitchen table

8 expenses you can claim while working from home

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Working from home can come with its own challenges, not least the additional costs that it might impose on you.

If you think about it, whilst working from home, you may have an increase in:
– utility bills (electricity, water, heating, gas)
– use of your personal mobile phone
– home internet, and;
– maybe even increased expenses for keeping your home working area clean

And guess what, you are able to claim for these extra costs!

What tax deductions can you claim?

If you work from home, you can claim the work-related proportions of household costs such as:

1# Heating, cooling and lighting bills;

2# Costs of cleaning your home working area

3# Depreciation of home office furniture and fittings

4# Depreciation of office equipment and computers

5# Costs of repairing home office equipment, furniture and furnishings

6# Small capital items such as furniture and computer equipment costing less than $300 can be written off in full immediately (they don’t need to be depreciated)

7# Computer consumables (like printer ink) and stationery; and

8# Phone (mobile and/or landline) and internet expenses.

You might think that you can claim a percentage of rent or the interest on a mortgage if you’re working from home using a home office, but sadly, this isn’t allowable.

Ideally, you should have a specific room set aside as a home office. If you are using a room with a dual purpose (e.g. dining room), or a room shared with others (e.g. lounge room) you can only claim the expenses for the hours you had exclusive use of the area.

So, how do you make your claim?

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
  • fixed rate method ─ claim all of these:
    • a rate of 52 cents per work hour for heating, cooling, lighting, cleaning and the decline in value of office furniture,
    • the work-related portion of your actual costs of phone and internet expenses, computer consumables, stationery, and
    • the work-related portion of the decline in value of a computer, laptop or similar device.
  • actual cost method ─ claim the actual work-related portion of all your running expenses, which you need to calculate on a reasonable basis.

For more information on how to calculate and claim a deduction under the actual cost method or fixed rate method see Home office expenses.

 

Click here to read more from the ATO on employees working from home.

 

For any further questions relating to tax deductions or your personal or business finances don’t hesitate to contact one our accountant today.