As many employees and businesses migrate to working from home in the interests of employee safety as a result of the enforced Government shutdown, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has announced special arrangements this financial year due to COVID-19 to make it easier for people to claim tax deductions for costs incurred in working from home.
We are sending this now so you can consider your own circumstances and to best prepare yourselves to maximise your eligible tax deductible claim for your 2019/20 tax return.
This new arrangement will allow employees/contractors to claim a rate of 80 cents per hour for all their running expenses, rather than needing to calculate costs for specific running expenses.
Multiple people living in the same house can claim this new rate. For example, a couple living together could each individually claim the 80 cents per hour rate. The requirement to have a dedicated work from home area has also been removed.
This new shortcut method will make it easier for those who are working from home for the first time and you will only be required to keep a record of the number of hours worked from home.
The Assistant Commissioner, Karen Foat, in making this announcement commented that “This recognises that many taxpayers are working from home for the first time and makes claiming a deduction much easier. If you choose to use this shortcut method, all you need to do is keep a record of the hours you worked from home as evidence of your claim.”
This new shortcut arrangement does not prohibit people from making a working from home claim under existing arrangements, where you calculate all or part of your running expenses.
Claims for working from home expenses prior to 1 March 2020 cannot be calculated using the shortcut method, and must use the pre-existing working from home approach and requirements.
The ATO will review the special arrangement for the next financial year as the COVID-19 situation progresses.
For a summary of this content, please click link below
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Working from home claims for 1 March to 30 June 2020
There are three ways that you can choose to calculate your additional running expenses for the 1 March – 30 June period:
- claim a rate of 80 cents per work hour for all additional running expenses.
- claim a rate of 52 cents per work hour for heating, cooling, lighting, cleaning and the decline in value of office furniture, plus calculate the work-related portion of your phone and internet expenses, computer consumables, stationery and the decline in value of a computer, laptop or similar device
- claim the actual work-related portion of all your running expenses, which you need to calculate on a reasonable basis.
The ATO is also reminding people that the three golden rules for deductions still apply. Taxpayers must have spent the money themselves and not have been reimbursed, the claim must be directly related to earning income, and there must be a record to substantiate the claim.
Working from home before 1 March 2020
Claims for working from home expenses prior to 1 March 2020 should be calculated using the existing approaches and are subject to the existing requirements.
Employees working from home
With this new announcement in mind, we note to claim a deduction for working from home, all of the following must apply:
- You must have spent the money.
- The expense must be directly related to earning your income.
- You must have a record to prove it.
This means you cannot claim a deduction for items provided by your employer or if you have been reimbursed for the expense.
If you are not reimbursed by your employer, but instead receive an allowance from them to cover your expenses when you work from home, you:
- must include this allowance as income in your tax return.
- can claim a deduction as outlined above
Expenses you can claim
If you work from home, you will be able to claim a deduction for the additional running expenses you incur. These include:
- electricity expenses associated with heating, cooling and lighting the area from which you are working and running items you are using for work
- cleaning costs for a dedicated work area
- phone and internet expenses
- computer consumables (for example, printer paper and ink) and stationery
- home office equipment, including computers, printers, phones, furniture and furnishings – you can claim either the:
- full cost of items up to $300
- decline in value for items over $300.
The ATO understand that tracking all of these expenses can be challenging at this time. So they have issued a guidance that they will accept a temporary simplified method (or shortcut method) of calculating additional running expenses for the period starting 1 March 2020 until at least 30 June 2020 and may extend this method, depending on when work patterns start to return to normal.
Expenses you can’t claim
If you are working from home only due to COVID-19, you:
- cannot claim occupancy expenses such as mortgage interest, rent and rates
- cannot claim the cost of coffee, tea, milk and other general household items your employer may otherwise have provided you with at work.
Records you must keep
If you use the shortcut method, you only need to keep a record of the hours you worked at home, for example timesheets or diary notes.
If you use the other methods, you must also keep a record of the number of hours you worked from home along with records of your expenses
