Private ruling: Accommodation expenses
Published: July 2012
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 2011 | Year ended 30 June 2012 | Year ending 30 June 2013
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2010

Ruling: Q1: Are you entitled to a deduction for accommodation expenses incurred while working away from your family home? | A1: No.


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

Reasons for decision: Summary: The costs you incur for accommodation while working away from your family home are of a private nature and are incurred as a consequence of having your home in one place and working in another. Therefore, they are not incurred in gaining or producing your assessable income and are not deductible. | Detailed Reasoning - Detailed reasoning: 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. Generally, accommodation expenses are private in nature and are not deductible. In Lunney v. FC of T (1958) 100 CLR 478 the Full High Court laid down the principle that for a deduction to be allowable it is not enough for the expenditure to be an essential prerequisite to the derivation of assessable income. In that case it was held that the costs incurred by a taxpayer in travelling to the place where they work are expenses incurred in order to enable them to earn income but are not expenses incurred in the course of earning that income. 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 considered that the caravan was rendered necessary as much by the taxpayer's choice of the place of his residence in Grafton as by his choice of employment in the forest, and its purpose was to enable him to retain his residence at Grafton although employed in the forest. It was 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 due to having your home in one town and your employment in another. Whilst the expenses would not be incurred but for the distance of your work place from your family home, the expenses are a prerequisite to the earning of assessable income. That is, they are incurred in order to put you in a position to be able to earn income but are not incurred in the actual course of gaining or producing that income. Also, the expenses are considered to be private in nature as they are incurred due to your choice of where you live and where you work. A deduction is therefore not allowable for your accommodation expenses.

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 were recently promoted with your current employer and sent to work in Town A. | Due to existing school and work commitments, your family still resides in Town B, approximately 200 km away, | Given the distance from your family home and your work commitments, you have rented accommodation in Town A. | There is no accommodation supplied by your employer, nor are there bedrooms or other similar facilities at your workplace. | As a requirement of your job you are required to be available after hours for things such as major incidents and events, advice and a requirement to perform regular overtime and recalls to duty. | You incur weekly rental expenses.