Private ruling: Work related expenses
Published: July 2014
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 2014
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2013

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

Relevant facts and circumstances: You are pilot employed by a commercial airline to fly within Australia. On occasions you work outside the scheduled flight times listed on your pilot's roster due to unforseen delays. Your hours of duty are within the Civil Aviation Order flight time limitations and duty limitations as approved by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. Under your enterprise agreement, you receive a small monthly meal allowance. You purchase your own meal when your duty hours have been extended. You do not receive an overtime meal allowance for the extended hours. You have written evidence to support your meal expenses.

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 losses and outgoings which are incurred in the course of gaining or producing assessable income, unless the losses or outgoings are capital, or are of a capital, private or domestic nature. Taxation Ruling TR 95/19 Income tax: airline industry employees - allowances, reimbursements and work-related deductions applies to employees in the airline industry and defines airline employees as flight attendants, flight engineers, pilots and ground engineers. TR 95/19 discusses the deductibility of meals for airline industry employees at paragraphs 90 to 96. The ruling states a deduction is not allowable for the cost of meals consumed during the normal course of a working day. Meal expenses are only deductible where: • The expense relates to the purchase of a meal when the taxpayer is working overtime and has received an overtime meal allowance, which was paid under an industrial award, or • The taxpayer incurred the expense when travelling away from home for work purposes. In Federal Commissioner of Taxation v. Cooper (1991) 29 FCR 177; 91 ATC 4396; (1991) 21 ATR 1616, the private aspect of a claim for meals was considered. Hill J said: Food and drink are ordinarily private matters, and the essential character of expenditure on food and drink will ordinarily be private rather than having the character of a working or business expense. However, the occasion of the outgoing may operate to give to expenditure on food and drink the essential character of a working expense in cases such as those illustrated of work-related entertainment or expenditure incurred while away from home. In your case, you do receive a meal allowance; however, the amount you receive is not paid in relation to each occasion your duty/flight times are extended. It is an amount paid on a monthly basis and is not considered to be a bona fide overtime meal allowance. Also the Commissioner considers that travelling away from home for work purposes means that employees would be required to sleep away from home. As you are not in receipt of a bona fide overtime meal allowance for each period of extra duty and are not required to stay away from home overnight you are not entitled to claim meal expenses as these expenses are private in nature.