Accountant and Bookkeeper Tax Deductions 2025-26: What You Can and Can't Claim

General information only. Speak with a registered tax agent for advice.

The ATO doesn’t publish a dedicated occupation guide for accountants or bookkeepers the way it does for nurses or tradies — so the rules here come from the ATO’s general employee deduction framework: the three golden rules (you spent the money, it wasn’t reimbursed, and you have a record), the self-education test, the professional-membership renewal rule, and the working-from-home methods. That general framework turns out to draw a clean, occupation-relevant line for anyone in accounting or bookkeeping: almost everything you’ll claim sits in an office (a home office, more often than not), so the two questions that decide most claims are whether an expense is genuinely tied to your current role rather than a step toward a different one, and whether you’re accidentally double-claiming home-office costs that a fixed-rate method already covers.

What you can claim

Dollar ranges are indicative of typical spending, not ATO limits. Claim what you actually incurred and can substantiate.

The working-from-home double-claim trap

If you use the fixed rate method (70c per work hour for 2024-25 and 2025-26) to claim your working-from-home running costs, that rate already bakes in home and mobile internet or data, mobile and home phone usage, electricity and gas, and stationery and computer consumables. The ATO is explicit: if you use this method, you can’t claim an additional separate deduction for these expenses. What you can still claim on top of the fixed rate is the decline in value of technology and office furniture (laptops, monitors, desks, chairs) and their repairs, plus items costing $300 or less claimed immediately. If your phone use is heavy and mostly work-related, the actual cost method may suit you better — but you have to pick one method for the year and apply it consistently, not mix and match.

What you cannot claim

• Conventional officewear. Suits, business shirts, blouses and closed shoes are everyday clothing worn regardless of occupation. They stay private even where a firm expects a professional appearance, unless the item is a genuine compulsory uniform with the employer’s logo.
• The initial cost of gaining a qualification, registration or practising certificate. Getting your first CA, CPA, or registered BAS/tax agent status is what gets you into the role, not an expense of doing the role — it’s not deductible, even though renewing it once you’re working is.
• Study that changes your profession rather than deepening your current one. A bookkeeper studying an unrelated qualification to move into a different field, or accounting study undertaken before you’re employed in the field, doesn’t have the required connection to your current employment income.
• Grooming, hairdressing and general personal care. Private, even if a client-facing role expects a well-presented appearance.
• Entertainment and social functions. Firm Christmas parties, industry networking dinners and similar functions are private, even if you discuss work matters there.
• Employer-reimbursed CPD, software or equipment. If your employer pays for or reimburses a course, subscription or laptop, you can’t also claim it.
• General business news and lifestyle subscriptions. Only a publication with a direct, specific connection to your duties (a technical accounting or tax-update service, for example) is deductible.
• Fines and penalties. Never deductible, regardless of any work connection.
• Child care. No direct connection to earning your income, even on days you work from home.

Worked example

Priya works as a client accountant at a mid-tier firm, earning $88,000 in 2025-26. She’s a CPA Australia member, works from home two days a week, and attends a half-day tax-update seminar during the year.

At Priya’s marginal rate of 30% (plus 2% Medicare levy), these deductions reduce her tax by approximately $615. Run your own numbers through the Tax Return Calculator.

Notice what isn’t in that table: a separate line for her phone and home internet. Because Priya used the working-from-home fixed rate method, those costs are already folded into the 70c-per-hour rate — adding them again would be a double claim the ATO’s own guidance rules out. The only extra she can add on top of the fixed rate is the monitor, because technology and furniture decline in value sit outside what the rate covers. Compare methods for your own situation with the fixed rate vs actual cost working-from-home scenario.

ATO audit triggers

• Phone, internet, electricity or stationery claimed on top of the working-from-home fixed rate. The fixed rate already includes all four — a separate line for any of them alongside a fixed-rate claim is a direct double-claim flag.
• The initial cost of a qualification or registration claimed as a work deduction. Only renewals of an existing practising certificate, registration or membership are deductible — the cost of first obtaining it is capital in nature.
• Study claimed as self-education where it actually points to a different career. A close read of whether the course maintains your current skills versus opens a new profession is exactly what the ATO checks.
• 100% work-use claims on a laptop, phone or software subscription with no apportionment. Very few of these are used exclusively for work.
• Professional membership claimed in full where it’s only generally related to your current role. Only the first $42 is deductible in that situation, not the full subscription.

Records you need

• A timesheet, roster, diary or similar contemporaneous record of the hours you worked from home, if you use the fixed rate method.
• A receipt or invoice for your professional membership, registration renewal, or CPD course, showing the supplier, amount, date and nature of the expense.
• Evidence connecting a self-education expense to your current duties — for example, how a course topic relates to the work you actually do.
• An itemised phone or internet bill if you claim actual costs rather than the fixed rate, showing your work-use percentage.
• Purchase records for any depreciating asset (laptop, monitor, desk, chair) claimed on top of the fixed rate, including date and cost, so it can be split correctly between an immediate $300-or-less deduction and decline in value.
• Evidence you weren’t reimbursed for any item you claim.
• If your total work-related claim (including laundry, but excluding car, travel and overtime meal allowance expenses) is $300 or less, you don’t need written evidence for that portion — but you still need to be able to show how you worked it out.

Key takeaways

• There’s no ATO occupation guide specific to accountants or bookkeepers — the rules come from the general self-education, professional-membership and working-from-home framework, which still maps cleanly onto office-based work.
• The working-from-home fixed rate (70c/hour for 2024-25 and 2025-26) already includes phone, internet, electricity and stationery — don’t claim those separately; only technology and furniture decline in value sit on top of it.
• Renewing a practising certificate, registration or professional membership is deductible; the initial cost of first getting it is not.
• Self-education is deductible only where it maintains or improves your current role’s skills or is likely to increase income from that role — not where it trains you for a different profession.
• Conventional officewear and grooming stay private no matter how client-facing the role is.

Sources

• ATO: Self-education expenses
• ATO: Professional memberships and accreditations
• ATO: Union fees, subscriptions to associations and bargaining agents fees
• ATO: Working from home expenses — fixed rate method

Next step

• Run your estimate in the Tax Return Calculator
• Compare your claim shape in the Work-Related Deductions Calculator
• Compare working-from-home methods in the fixed rate vs actual cost scenario

Occupation guides

These role-specific guides cover the practical deduction rules, record-keeping checkpoints, and the best calculator to use next.

• Tax for Accountants — memberships, CPD, software, and working from home
• Tax for Bookkeepers — software, memberships, working from home, and client admin