Private ruling: work related expenses
Date of advice: 28 July 2017
Published: November 2017
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 2017 | Year ending 30 June 2018 | Year ending 30 June 2019 | Year ending 30 June 2020 | Year ending 30 June 2021
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2016

Ruling: Are you entitled to a deduction for parking fees relating to your second shift as a health care professional? | Yes.


Relevant legislative provisions: Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 section 8-1 | Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 section 51AGA

Reasons for decision: Summary: Car parking expenses incurred while at work 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. It is the Commissioner’s view that a deduction is allowable for parking fees (but not fines) and tolls if the expenses are incurred by an employee while travelling: (a) between two separate places of work; (b) to a place of education for self-education purposes (if the self-education expenses are deductible); or (c) in the normal course of duty and the travelling expenses are allowable deductions. A deduction is not allowable for parking fees and tolls incurred when employees are travelling between their home and their normal place of employment. The cost of that travel is a private expense and the parking fees and tolls therefore have the same private character. A deduction is allowable for parking fees and tolls if the travel is not private, e.g., travel between home and work when transporting bulky equipment. You incur parking fees at your second work place 4 days a week. You are travelling between two separate places of work from the first to the second shift. Therefore, you are entitled to a deduction under section 8-1 of the ITAA 1997 for car parking expenses incurred while you are working at your second work place.

Relevant facts: You are an itinerant worker. | You work as a professional 4 days a week. | You do two shifts per day 4 days a week. | You work at two separate work places each work day. | You don’t know from one day to the other where you will be working. | Sometimes for the first shift of the day you find out the night before or on the day. | You find out where you will be working for the second shift on the day of the shift.