Private ruling: Meal expenses
Published: October 2013
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 2013
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2012

Ruling: Q1: Are you entitled to a deduction for meals? | A1: No


Relevant legislative provisions: Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 Section 8-1

Reasons for decision: Summary: Section 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997( ITAA 1997) allows a deduction for all losses and outgoings to the extent to which they are incurred in gaining or producing assessable income except where the outgoings are of a capital, private or domestic nature, or relate to the earning of exempt income. The cost of meals is generally considered to be a private expense and not deductible under section 8-1 of the ITAA 1997. An exception is where a taxpayer is travelling in the course of performing their work duties, for example, an interstate truck driver who travels away from home overnight. In these types of cases, the accommodation, meal and incidental expenses incurred while the taxpayer is travelling are incidental to the proper carrying out of their employment function and cease to be of a private nature. However, it is important to distinguish taxpayers who travel in the course of carrying out their employment duties from taxpayers who are living away from home. In the latter case, the taxpayer moves and takes up temporary residence away from their usual place of residence so as to be able to carry out employment duties for a time at the new (but temporary) workplace. Generally, expenses incurred by an employee who lives away from home to carry out the duties of his employment will not be deductible. Similarly the expenses of travel to and from work enable a person to derive assessable income. Expenses of this nature have been found to be private or incurred before or after the activity of earning assessable income. The time of travel, distance of travel or the necessity of travel do not alter the essential character of the expenses. In your case the meal expenses you incur are not considered to be incurred in the course of undertaking your income earning activities. The expenses are incurred by you in putting yourself in a position where you can commence performing your duties, rather than in the performance of those duties. Therefore you are not entitled to a deduction for the meal expenses you incur as they are considered private in nature.

Relevant facts: You work for a company at remote sites. | You fly from your home in Town A to remote sites at the company's expense. | Once on site you are fully catered for through the camp facilities. | You work on a one month on and one week off roster. | Your employer pays you for work while travelling. | You have incurred expenses for meals on route to and from your work.