Private ruling: Parking Fees
Date of advice: 8 August 2018
Published: September 2018
Ruling period: 30 June 2018
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2017

Ruling: Q1: Are you entitled to claim a deduction for your car parking expenses? | A1: No

Relevant facts and circumstances: You are employed in a particular field and park your vehicle at a designated staff parking area. Due to the nature of the working location and the trading hours, your hours can vary. Although you do have the option of catching public transport to get to and from your place of employment, the trains operate xx am weekdays and later on weekends until the last train at xx pm. Similarly you also have the option of catching taxi’s or uber, however this option is extremely costly and the option to pay for staff parking at a fraction of the cost becomes more viable in terms of cost, reliability and safety. No other motor vehicle expenses are claimed and the parking fees are taken from your pay every fortnight and are shown on all pay slips.

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) states that you can deduct from your assessable income any loss or outgoing to the extent that it is incurred in gaining or producing your assessable income. However, you cannot deduct a loss or outgoing to the extent that it is capital, private or domestic in nature. Taxation Ruling TR 95/19 discusses deductions for airline employees and states that a deduction is not allowable for parking fees and tolls incurred when airline employees are travelling between their home and their normal place of employment. The cost of travel is of a private expense; the parking fees and tolls have the same private character. TR 95/19 at paragraph 102 states that a deduction is allowable for parking fees and tolls if the expenses are incurred while travelling: ● between two separate places of work; ● to a place of education for self-education purposes; or ● in the normal course of duty and the travelling expenses are allowable deductions. In your case the parking fees occur in circumstances similar to those described for airline employees described in TR 95/19 in that you are travelling from your home to your place of work. You are not incurring the parking expenses travelling between places of employment, when undertaking a course of study, or in the course of carrying out your employment duties. The parking expenses occur when you are travelling to your workplace to start work. Therefore the cost of your parking fees are considered to be private and domestic in nature and as such are not deductible under section 8-1 of the ITAA 1997.