Private ruling: Work related motor vehicle expenses
Date of advice: 26 September 2016
Published: November 2016
Ruling period: Year ending 30 June 2017 | Year ending 30 June 2016
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2015

Ruling: Q1: Are you entitled to a deduction for your motor vehicle expenses to travel between your accommodation and your first worksite for a compulsory meeting? | A1: No. | Q2: Are you entitled to a deduction for motor vehicle expenses when travelling between different worksites, such as main office to worksite and vice versa, in the one shift? | A2: Yes. | Q3: Are you entitled to a deduction for motor vehicle expenses to travel from the main office back to your accommodation once your shift has ended? | A3: No.

Relevant facts and circumstances: You are employed on a work site. You are provided accommodation on site. You are required to attend meetings every day before commencing work in your role which you travel to in your own vehicle. After the meeting you then travel in your vehicle to your worksite. Once arriving at the worksite you use site provided vehicles. At the end of your shift you use your own vehicle to travel back to the main office to log out of onsite tracking and travel back to accommodation.

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 a loss or outgoing to the extent to which it is incurred in gaining or producing assessable income, except where the loss or outgoing is of a capital, private or domestic nature, or relates to the earning of exempt income. Travel between home and work A deduction is generally not allowable for the cost of travel by an employee between home and their normal workplace as it is considered to be a private expense (Lunney v. Federal Commissioner of Taxation (1958) 100 CLR 478; 11 ATD 404) (Taxation Ruling IT 112). The cost of travelling between home and work is generally incurred to put the employee in a position to perform duties of employment, rather than in the performance of those duties. Put at its simplest, travel to work is private; travel on work is business. It should be noted that the mode of transport, the availability of transport, the lack of suitable public transport, the erratic times of employment, the time of travel, the distance of travel and the necessity of travel does not alter the essential character of travel between home and work as being private in nature. In your case the travel between your accommodation and the main office and at the end of your shift are considered the same as travel between home and work, therefore you cannot claim a deduction for this travel. Travel between two different work sites. After commencing your duties where you are required to travel to a different worksite it is considered you are travelling on work rather than to work as the travel is undertaken in the performance of your duties. In your case, you commence your employment duties when you arrive at the main for a meeting. After this meeting has ended you then travel to the worksite in your vehicle. At the end of your shift you also use your own vehicle to travel from the worksite back to the main office to log out of the onsite tracking system allowing your employer to be advised you are no longer onsite. Consequently it is considered that you start and finish work at the main office and the travel onsite is incurred in order to continue your work with your employer. Therefore you will be entitled to claim a deduction for your travel expenses for this portion of your journey.