Private ruling: Travel expenses
Date of advice: 27 August 2015
Published: August 2015
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 2015
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2014

Ruling: Q1: Are you entitled to a deduction for home to work travel expenses? | A1: Yes.

Relevant facts and circumstances: You work in the information technology industry. Your work is predominantly carried out at client premises. The majority of the background work and internal reporting is completed at home or from your laptop. It is the policy of your employer that no employee has a designated desk. You will attend the office for various sales meetings and reporting to management but this is also largely done via skype, by mobile and via the internet. You spend approximately 10 hours per week at the office and approximately 20 hours per week at your home office. The remainder of your week is spent visiting clients. You start your job from home in the mornings before you go out and visit clients and the employer office. You visit approximately two or three clients a day. You have a home office that is used solely for your work. You don't receive a travel allowance.

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. Generally, expenditure in travelling between a taxpayer's home and place of work is of a private nature and is accordingly excluded as a deduction under section 8-1 of the ITAA 1997. It is only in certain circumstances, such as your work is of an itinerant nature, you are carrying bulky equipment or, where your home is considered to be a base of operations are you entitled to a deduction for travel to or from your home. An employee's home may constitute a base of operations if the work is commenced at or before the time of leaving home to travel to work and the responsibility for completing it is not discharged until the taxpayer attends at the work site. Whether an employee's home constitutes a base of operations depends on the nature and the extent of the activities undertaken by the employee at home (Taxation Ruling TR 95/34). In your case, you carry out a substantial portion of your duties from your home office. Although you are required to travel regularly to visit client premises and to attend meetings, etc at the office, you commence your duties before you leave home. It is due to the nature of your position and the duties you are required to carry out that you are required to travel to client premises and your employers' office. Due to the nature of the duties that you carry out at home, we consider that your home office constitutes a base of operations. Accordingly, you are entitled to a deduction under section 8-1 of the ITAA 1997 for the costs incurred to travel between your home office and your other workplaces.