Travel Expenses (Work-Related)

Work-related travel expenses are deductible when you travel away from your regular workplace for work purposes — particularly when you are required to travel overnight or for extended periods. Deductible travel expenses include: airfares, accommodation, meals (when travelling overnight), taxi/rideshare fares, car hire, tolls, parking, and incidentals like phone calls and laundry while away.

The ATO publishes annual reasonable travel allowance amounts (known as TD travel rates) that set benchmark daily amounts for accommodation, meals, and incidentals for domestic and international travel. If your employer pays you a travel allowance and your expenses are within these reasonable amounts, you can claim a deduction equal to the allowance without keeping detailed receipts (though you must still be able to show you incurred the expenses). If you claim above the reasonable amounts, you need receipts for the full amount claimed.

Important distinctions: ordinary commuting (home to regular workplace) is not deductible, even if it's a long distance. However, travel from your workplace to a different location for work (e.g., attending a conference, visiting a client, working at a temporary location) is deductible. If you are required to travel between home and work because of the nature of your job (e.g., itinerant workers with no fixed workplace), those travel costs may be deductible. Fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workers can claim the cost of travel between their home and the airport departure point.