Doctor and Medical Specialist Tax Deductions 2025-26: What You Can and Can't Claim

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

The ATO’s guide for doctors, specialists and other medical professionals makes a point of naming your own profession as its example of what you can’t claim: business attire. Suits, shirts, dresses and other clothing you wear to see patients is “conventional clothing” — everyday clothing worn by people regardless of occupation — and the ATO explicitly uses “business attire worn by a doctor, specialist or medical professional” as its illustration of the rule. It stays private even though you only ever wear it at work. What genuinely is deductible for medical professionals is a narrower, more specific list than many assume: the equipment and instruments you buy yourself, your professional indemnity insurance and association fees, protective items you use around patients, and the running costs of working from home. A second theme runs through almost every deductible category in the ATO’s guide — you can only claim what you actually paid for. Indemnity insurance, protective equipment, phones and equipment that your employer supplies, funds or reimburses drop out of the claim entirely, because you haven’t incurred the expense yourself. Get the boundary between those two lists right and your return holds up; blur it and clothing or private-use claims are exactly what invites a closer look.

What you can claim

Dollar ranges above are indicative of what doctors and other medical professionals commonly spend — they are not ATO limits. Claim what you actually incurred and can substantiate.

What you cannot claim

• Conventional clothing, including business attire. The ATO’s own example for this occupation is “business attire worn by a doctor, specialist or medical professional.” It stays a private expense even if your employer requires it and you only wear it at work — and laundering it isn’t deductible either.
• Trips between home and your regular place of work. Private, even if you live a long way away or work outside normal business hours (weekends, early shifts). A narrow exception applies where you carry bulky tools or equipment essential to your work, or you have genuinely shifting places of employment — but ordinary commuting doesn’t qualify.
• The initial cost of getting your practising certificate. You incur that expense to be able to start employment, not while earning your income — only the annual renewal is deductible.
• Prescription glasses and contact lenses. Private, even though you need them to do your job. Only protective eyewear such as anti-glare, photochromatic or safety glasses/goggles is deductible.
• Grooming expenses. Hairdressing, cosmetics, and hair and skin care products are private, even if you receive a grooming allowance or your employer expects you to be well presented.
• Child care and your children’s education costs. School fees, university and TAFE fees, and items like laptops, iPads, calculators or desks bought for your children’s education have no direct connection to earning your income.
• Entertainment and social functions. Work breakfasts, lunches and dinners, gala nights, concerts, cocktail parties and similar events — even compulsory ones, and even if you discuss work matters there. Travel to and from them is out too.
• Food and drink during your normal working hours. Private, even with a meal allowance. The narrow exception is an overtime meal you buy and eat while working overtime, where you receive a separate overtime meal allowance under an industrial law, award or agreement that’s shown separately on your income statement and declared as income.
• Your driver’s licence. Not deductible, even if holding one is a condition of your employment.
• Fines and penalties. Including a parking fine incurred outside the hospital or clinic where you work.
• Removal and relocation expenses. Not deductible whether the move is a condition of your existing job or you’re starting a new one.
• Anything your employer supplied, paid for or reimbursed. This recurs across protective items, phones, and professional indemnity insurance — if you didn’t incur the cost, there’s nothing to claim.
• An ordinary watch or timepiece. Even if required as part of your job, unless it has special work-related characteristics like a fob watch.

Worked example

Dr Naomi is a hospital-based specialist in Melbourne earning $220,000 in 2025-26. She occasionally writes reports and completes CPD from home, renewed her AMA and practising certificate memberships, pays her own professional indemnity insurance, and bought her own diagnostic equipment.

At Dr Naomi’s marginal rate of 45% (plus 2% Medicare levy), these deductions reduce her tax by approximately $2,592. Run your own numbers through the Tax Return Calculator.

She uses the 70c fixed-rate method for her home admin hours, which is why phone, internet, electricity and stationery don’t appear as separate lines — her stethoscope, professional library and other medical equipment sit in a different expense category entirely, so they’re still claimed in full alongside the fixed rate. Check what applies to your own claim in the Work-Related Deductions Calculator.

ATO audit triggers

• Any clothing or laundry claim beyond genuine protective or occupation-specific items. Business attire is the ATO’s own named example of non-deductible conventional clothing for this profession, so a claim for suits, shirts or dresses is a direct flag. Laundry claims should map only to protective clothing like scrubs.
• Claiming both the WFH fixed rate and separate phone, internet, electricity or stationery costs. The 70c rate is designed to cover them; claiming both is arithmetically visible in your return.
• Claiming items your employer already supplied, paid for or reimbursed. This applies most often to protective equipment, phone usage and professional indemnity insurance — a common error where the cost was never actually incurred by you.
• The initial practising certificate claimed instead of the renewal. The ATO draws a hard line between the two.
• 100% work use on shared-use items like protective glasses, watches or phones with no apportionment for private use.
• Self-education that points at a different role or specialty. A course that only relates in a general way to your current employment, or helps you move into a new role, isn’t deductible — the test is your current duties at the time you incur the cost.
• Car expenses for ordinary home-to-work travel. Only the narrow bulky-tools or shifting-workplace exception applies; a regular commute to your usual hospital or clinic doesn’t.

Records you need

• A record of hours worked from home kept as you go (diary, roster or calendar) if you use the fixed rate — an estimate written up at tax time isn’t sufficient.
• Receipts showing purchase date and cost for medical equipment and tools, so items can be split correctly between the immediate $300-or-less deduction and decline in value.
• Evidence you weren’t reimbursed for professional indemnity insurance, protective equipment, memberships or phone costs you claim.
• A basis for any work-use percentage you apply to shared-use items — protective glasses, a special-purpose watch, or phone, data and internet.
• Membership, certificate and insurance invoices. Association fees often appear on your income statement, which the ATO accepts as evidence of the amount paid.
• Repair invoices for tools and equipment, so you can separate the work-related portion from any private use.
• Laundry needs no written evidence if the claim is $150 or less. More broadly, you don’t need receipts at all if your total work-related claim — including laundry, but excluding car, travel and overtime meal allowance expenses — is $300 or less.
• If you claim phone, data and internet separately (not using the fixed rate) and the total is $50 or less, no records are needed; above $50 you need the bills plus evidence of work use.

Key takeaways

• Business attire is not deductible — the ATO names it specifically for doctors, specialists and medical professionals as its own example of conventional clothing.
• Renewing your practising certificate is deductible; the initial certificate you needed before starting work is not.
• Medical equipment and tools split at $300: at or below, an immediate deduction; above, decline in value over the effective life — both apportioned for private use.
• Protective items — equipment, anti-glare or safety glasses, occupation-specific clothing — are deductible only for the risk they genuinely address, and only if your employer hasn’t already supplied, paid for or reimbursed them.
• The 70c WFH fixed rate is usually the simplest route for admin hours at home, but it rules out separate phone, internet, electricity and stationery claims — equipment like your stethoscope or professional library is unaffected because it sits outside the fixed rate.
• Self-education must connect to the job you have now, not the one you want next.

Sources

• ATO: Doctor, specialist and other medical professionals – income and work-related deductions

Next step

• Run your estimate in the Tax Return Calculator
• Check your full deduction list in the Work-Related Deductions Calculator

Occupation guides

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

• Tax for Doctors — registration, CPD, indemnity and current-role training