Private ruling: Home to work travel
Published: July 2012
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 2012
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2011

Ruling: Q1: Are you entitled to a deduction for the cost of travelling between home and work on the basis that your employment is considered itinerant? | A1: No.


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) broadly allows a deduction for any losses or outgoings to the extent to which they are incurred in gaining or producing assessable income except to the extent outgoings are of a capital, private or domestic nature. A deduction is generally not allowable for the cost of transport between home and the normal workplace. However, a deduction is allowable for the cost of travelling between home and work if an employee's work is itinerant (Taxation Ruling TR 95/34). The question of whether an employees work is itinerant is one of fact, to be determined according to individual circumstances. It is the nature of each individual's duties and not their occupation or industry that determines if they are engaged in itinerant work. There have been a number of cases where deductions for transport expenses were allowed on the basis of the taxpayers shifting places of work. Shifting places of work is another term for itinerancy. The following characteristics have emerged from these cases as being indicators of itinerancy: · travel is a fundamental part of the employees work · the existence of a web of work places in the employees regular employment, that is, the employee has no fixed place of work · the employee continually travels from one work site to another (an employee must regularly work at more than one work site before returning to his or her usual place of residence) · other factors that may indicate itinerancy (to a lesser degree) include: · the employee has a degree of uncertainty of location in his or her employment (that is no long term plan or regular pattern exists) · the employees home constitutes a base of operations · the employee has to carry bulky equipment from home to different work sites, and · the employer provides an allowance in recognition of the employees need to travel continually between different work sites. In your case, you travel from your home to the work site each day and you have a web of work places in your regular employment. However, travel is not a fundamental part of your work; you do not travel to a number of sites within the day before returning home; there is a long term plan and regular pattern; you are not required to carry bulky equipment; your employer does not pay you a travel allowance Based on the indicators above, your work is not considered to be itinerant. Therefore, you are not entitled to a deduction for the cost of travel between your home and work.

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 work at a number of sites around your area which move regularly, sometimes daily. | The sites are determined three months in advance.