Private ruling: Home to work travel
Published: December 2011
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 2012
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2011

Ruling: Q1: Are you entitled to a deduction for the cost of travelling between home and work on the basis that your employment is considered itinerant? | A1: Yes.


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 any losses or 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. A deduction is generally not allowable for the cost of transport between home and the normal workplace. However, a deduction is allowable for the cost of travelling between home and work if an employee's work is itinerant (Taxation Ruling TR 95/34). The question of whether an employee's work is itinerant is one of fact, to be determined according to individual circumstances. It is the nature of each individual's duties and not their occupation or industry that determines if they are engaged in itinerant work. There have been a number of cases where deductions for transport expenses were allowed on the basis of the taxpayers shifting places of work. Shifting places of work is another term for itinerancy. The following characteristics have emerged from these cases as being indicators of itinerancy: · travel is a fundamental part of the employee's work · the existence of a web of work places in the employee's regular employment, that is, the employee has no fixed place of work · the employee continually travels from one work site to another (an employee must regularly work at more than one work site before returning to his or her usual place of residence) · other factors that may indicate itinerancy (to a lesser degree) include: · the employee has a degree of uncertainty of location in his or her employment (that is no long term plan or regular pattern exists) · the employee's home constitutes a base of operations · the employee has to carry bulky equipment from home to different work sites, and · the employer provides an allowance in recognition of the employee's need to travel continually between different work sites. In your case, you travel from your home to your first client's home, then travel on to other clients before returning home. Your work sites are uncertain. Your employment is considered inherently itinerant in nature. Therefore, you are entitled to a deduction under section 8-1 of the ITAA 1997 for the cost of travel between your home and the various locations where you perform your employment duties.

Please check this edited version to be sure that there are no details remaining that you think may allow you to be identified. If you have any concerns about this ruling you wish to discuss, you will find our contact details in the fact sheet. | Relevant facts: You are a health industry worker. | You visit clients in their home. | You travel from your home to the first client and on to a number of other clients during the day before returning home. | Each client lives in different suburbs and you do not travel to the same place each day. | You only attend your office once or twice per year.