Private ruling: Travel
Published: October 2013
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 2013
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2012

Ruling: Q1: Are you entitled to a deduction for home to work at your client's site? | A1: No. | Q2: Are you entitled to a deduction for travel from your normal workplace to an alternative workplace while still on duty and back to your normal workplace or directly home? | A2: 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 deals with general deductions and allows a deduction for all losses or outgoings to the extent to which they are incurred in gaining or producing assessable income, except to the extent that they are outgoings of a capital, private or domestic nature. Generally the expenses of travel to and from work are not deductible. This is either because such expenditure is private in nature, or because it is not an expense incurred in gaining or producing assessable income. However, there are situations where it has been accepted that travel by employees from home to work is deductible. Taxation Ruling IT 2543 summarises these situations as follows: a) the taxpayer's home constitutes a place of employment and travel is between two places of employment or business; b) the taxpayer's employment can be construed as having commenced before or at the time of leaving home; c) the taxpayer has to transport by vehicle bulky equipment necessary for employment; d) the taxpayer's employment is inherently of an itinerant nature; e) the taxpayer is required to break his or her normal journey to perform employment duties (other than including incidental duties such as collecting newspapers, mail, etc.) on the way from home to the usual place of employment, or from the place of employment to home. Work is considered to be where you perform your duties and not where your employer is located. A deduction is allowable for the cost of travel from your normal workplace to an alternative workplace while still on duty and back to your normal workplace or directly home. Your situation does not correspond with any of the above situations. Your travel is simply home to work travel and you are not entitled to a deduction for that travel.

You get sent out to client's sites from time to time. | On the days you use your car, you travel directly to your client's site and then directly home. Sometimes, you drive to the train station and take a train and return home in the afternoon. | You sometimes travel from your work site on to a client's site before returning to work or home. | Your company reimburses your public transport fares but they do not reimburse your car expenses.