Working From Home Tax Deductions During COVID19

Working from home due to COVID19? The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has developed a simple way for Australians to claim home office expenses incurred as a result of COVID19 using a “shortcut method”, which is substantially more streamlined than the standard method.

It’s as simple as claiming 80c for each hour worked from home for all of the regular claimable expenses.

This as long as you paid for them, and were not reimbursed for the following:

• electricity for lighting, cooling or heating and running electronic items used for work (for example your computer), and gas heating expenses
• the decline in value and repair of capital items, such as home office furniture and furnishings cleaning expenses
• your phone costs, including the decline in value of the handset
• your internet costs
• computer consumables, such as printer ink
• stationery
• the decline in value of a computer, laptop or similar device.

If using the shortcut method, you can't claim any further deduction for the expenses listed above.

You’ll just need to keep a record of hours worked from home, for example via your timesheets or a simple spreadsheet, and don’t forget to include the note ‘COVID-hourly rate’ in your 2019-20 tax return.

See the ATO website for the details, or reach out to your tax adviser.