Private ruling: Accommodation expenses
Date of advice: 12 December 2017
Published: May 2018
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 2015
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2014

Ruling: Question and answer | Are you entitled to a deduction for accommodation and travel expenses? | No.

Relevant facts and circumstances: Your new job required you to be located in city A in order to perform your job. Your main residence was located in city B and their family remained there to live while you were away working interstate. During the period you were working interstate, you incurred accommodation expenses while in city A to enable you to perform your job satisfactorily. You also incurred travel expenses travelling interstate. You were never paid a living away from home allowance.

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

Reasons for decision: Detailed Reasoning - Accommodation: Section 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 allows a deduction for all outgoings to the extent to which they are incurred in gaining or producing assessable income, or are necessarily incurred in carrying on a business for that purpose. However, a deduction is not allowable for outgoings that are of a capital, private or domestic nature. The issue of expenses incurred in relation to accommodation near the work place while maintaining a family residence in another location was considered in FC of T v. Toms 89 ATC 4373; (1989) 20 ATR 466 ( Toms' Case ). In Toms' Case , the taxpayer was a forest worker who during the working week lived in a caravan in a bush camp 108 kilometres from his family home in Grafton. He claimed it was too far to travel each day to his work in the forest, so that it was necessary to establish a caravan at the camp. He would return home on weekends. He claimed the costs of maintaining his caravan and other living expenses such as the cost of heating and lighting. The Federal Court held that the expenses incurred in relation to the temporary accommodation near the workplace while maintaining a family residence in another location were dictated not by his work but by private considerations, and therefore were not deductible. In your case, you incurred expenses for accommodation to enable you to work in a different city (city A) to where your principal residence is, in city B. However, as in Toms’ Case , the expenses are a prerequisite to the earning of assessable income. They are incurred in order to enable you to earn income but are not incurred in the course of gaining or producing that income. A deduction is therefore not allowable for your accommodation expenses. | Detailed Reasoning - Travel expenses (air fares): In considering the deductibility of travel expenses, a distinction is made between travel to work and travel on work. It is only if the duties of the job require a taxpayer to travel that the taxpayer's expenses can be deducted. In general, a deduction is not allowable for the cost of travel by an employee between their home and their normal workplace as it is considered private in nature. Taxation Ruling TR 95/34, paragraph 77 explains that the cost of such travel is incurred to put the employee in a position to perform their duties of employment, rather than in the performance of those duties. The case, Lunney v. Commissioner of Taxation ALR 225; 1958 0311H HCA; 100 CLR 478; (1958) 11 ATD 404; (1958) 32 ALJR 139 introduced what is now regarded as the essential character test. This test requires that for an expense to be deductible, it must have the essential character of a business or income producing expense. The taxpayer in this case sought to deduct the cost of travelling from his home to his work. The expenses were disallowed as being private and domestic, establishing the broad principle that costs incurred because of living in one place while working in another cannot be regarded as deductible. The fact that certain expenditure, such as travelling to work, must be incurred in order to be able to derive assessable income, does not necessarily mean that the expenditure is incidental and relevant to the derivation of assessable income. It is a prerequisite to the earning of assessable income rather than being incurred in the course of gaining that income. The essential character of the travel to and from work is that of a private and domestic nature, related to personal and living expenses as part of the taxpayer's choice of where to live, in choosing to live away from and what distance from work. In your case, you have incurred expenses for travel between your homes and your work. This travel is incurred in order to put you in a position to perform your duties of your employment; it is not incurred in the performance of the duties of your employment. As such, this travel is not a part of your actual work duties. For the travel to be a fundamental part of an employees work, travel must be an essential feature of an employee’s duties. Your duties will only commence when you reach the work site where you carry out your work. You are not considered to be travelling in the performance of your duties from the moment you leave your home or between homes. The air travel expenses you have incurred travelling between your places of residence and work are private in nature. Therefore, you are not entitled to a deduction for these expenses under section 8-1 of the ITAA 1997.