Travel Expenses (Work-Related)
Deductions for travel costs incurred for work purposes, including accommodation, meals, and transport when travelling away from home overnight.
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.
How it works
Work-related travel expenses are deductible when you travel away from your regular workplace for work purposes, particularly when that travel is overnight or extended. Deductible costs include airfares, accommodation, meals when travelling overnight, taxi and rideshare fares, car hire, tolls, parking, and incidentals such as phone calls and laundry while away — essentially the real costs of being away from your usual base for work reasons rather than personal ones.
In practice, the ATO publishes reasonable travel allowance amounts each year, known as TD rates, setting benchmark daily figures for accommodation, meals, and incidentals for domestic and international travel. If your employer pays you a travel allowance and your actual spending stays within those reasonable amounts, you can claim a deduction matching the allowance without needing to keep every receipt, though you must still be able to show the expense was genuinely incurred. Claiming above the reasonable amounts requires full receipts for the entire claim.
The key exclusion is ordinary commuting — travel between home and your regular workplace — which is never deductible no matter the distance. What is deductible is travel from your workplace to a different location for work, such as a conference, a client site, or a temporary posting. Itinerant workers with no fixed workplace may be able to deduct home-to-work travel because of the nature of their job, and fly-in fly-out workers can generally claim the cost of travelling between home and their airport departure point.
Example: an overnight conference trip within the reasonable amounts
An employee attends a three-day interstate work conference, staying overnight, and their employer pays a travel allowance to cover accommodation and meals.
Their actual accommodation and meal spending falls within the ATO's published reasonable travel allowance amounts for that year, so they can claim a deduction matching the allowance without keeping every individual receipt — provided they can still show the expenses were genuinely incurred.
Related Terms
Motor Vehicle Expenses
Tax deductions for work-related car use, claimable using the cents per kilometre method (91 cents/km up to 5,000 km) or logbook method.
Taxable Income
Your assessable income minus allowable deductions — the figure used to calculate your income tax.
Income Tax
Tax levied by the federal government on your taxable income, calculated using progressive tax brackets.
Work From Home Deductions
Tax deductions for expenses incurred when working from home, claimable using the fixed rate method or actual cost method.
Sole Trader
An individual who runs a business in their own name, reporting business income and expenses in their personal tax return.