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

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

Lawyers trip over the same distinction every year: the cost of getting into the profession is never deductible, but the cost of staying in it usually is. Admission fees, the initial cost of your practising certificate, and the one-off Supreme Court library fee you pay on admission are all private — the ATO’s reasoning is that you incur them to start earning income, not while you’re earning it. Renew the same practising certificate the following year, or pay the annual Supreme Court library fee, and it becomes deductible. It’s an easy line to blur, because the two costs can look almost identical on paper — same certificate, same court library, same amount in some years — and the only thing that changes is whether you were already employed when you paid it.

Clothing follows a similarly sharp line: the ATO names “business attire worn by a lawyer” as its own textbook example of non-deductible conventional clothing, so a suit doesn’t become work-related just because your firm expects one, and laundering it doesn’t become deductible either. What is deductible is mostly the ongoing cost of staying current — CPD, professional memberships, your professional library, and the running costs of working from home. A handful of lawyer-specific items also make the list that don’t appear on most occupation guides: professional indemnity insurance, Supreme Court library fees, and a professional library of directly relevant reference texts.

What you can claim

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

What you cannot claim

• Admission fees. The cost of being admitted to practice is incurred to enable you to start employment, not during the course of it, so it’s never deductible — no matter how essential it was to becoming a lawyer.
• The initial cost of your practising certificate, membership or accreditation. Only the annual renewal is deductible. The first certificate you had to hold before you could be employed is a private, start-of-employment cost.
• The one-off Supreme Court library fee paid on admission. Only the fee you pay on an ongoing, annual basis is deductible.
• Conventional business attire. Suits, shirts, dresses and other everyday professional clothing are conventional clothing. The ATO uses “business attire worn by a lawyer” as its own example of what stays private, even though your employer requires it and you only wear it at work. Laundering that clothing is not deductible either, since laundry claims only apply to protective, occupation-specific, or registered/compulsory uniform items.
• Prescription glasses and contact lenses. Private, even though you need them to do your job. Only anti-glare glasses used to reduce a real and likely risk of illness or injury are deductible, and only for the work-related use.
• Child care, school fees and other education costs for your children. These have no direct connection to earning your own income, however necessary they are to your ability to work.
• Club membership fees. For example, an annual golf club membership, even if it helps you manage client relationships.
• Your driver’s licence. Not deductible even where holding one is a condition of your employment.
• Entertainment and social functions. Work lunches and dinners, gala nights, cocktail parties, sporting events and similar functions — even when attendance is compulsory or you discuss work matters there. Travel to and from these events is also excluded.
• Fines and penalties. Including parking or speeding fines, regardless of any connection to work.
• Gifts and greeting cards for clients. A private expense.
• 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.
• The cost of defending your right to practise. Suspension-from-practice defence costs are not deductible.
• Removal and relocation expenses. Moving to a new work location isn’t deductible, whether the move is a condition of your existing job or you’re starting a new one.
• Food and drink during your normal working hours. Private, even if you receive a meal allowance — the overtime meal exception is narrow and depends on an award-based allowance shown separately on your income statement.
• Trips between home and your regular workplace, including parking at or near that workplace and tolls on the commute. These stay private even if you live a long way away or work outside normal hours.
• Anything your employer paid for or reimbursed, including phone plans, home office equipment, or transport costs.

Worked example

Elena is a solicitor in Melbourne earning $110,000 in 2025-26. She works from home two days a week, renewed her practising certificate, pays an annual Supreme Court library fee, and bought reference texts for her practice area.

At Elena’s marginal rate of 30% (plus 2% Medicare levy), these deductions reduce her tax by approximately $963. Run your own numbers through the Tax Return Calculator.

Note what is missing from that table: her admission fee (a one-off cost from years earlier, never deductible), the initial cost of her practising certificate (already claimed as private in her first year of practice), phone and internet (covered by the 70c fixed rate she’s using, so claiming them again would double up), and any laundry claim for her business attire (conventional clothing doesn’t qualify, so there’s nothing to launder for tax purposes). Her reference texts and database subscription stay in, because a professional library and work-related publications sit outside what the fixed rate covers. Compare deduction categories against your own year in the Work-Related Deductions Calculator.

ATO audit triggers

• Claiming the admission fee, or the initial practising certificate cost, as a deduction. Both are start-of-employment costs by the ATO’s own reasoning — claiming either is a direct mismatch with the rule.
• A clothing or laundry claim for business attire. The ATO names lawyer business attire as its conventional-clothing example specifically so this claim stands out. A laundry line with no protective or registered uniform behind it is a clear flag.
• Claiming the one-off Supreme Court library admission fee instead of, or as well as, the annual fee. Only the recurring annual fee is deductible.
• Claiming the WFH fixed rate and separate phone, internet or stationery costs. The 70c rate is designed to cover them; claiming both is arithmetically visible in your return.
• Self-education or CPD that points at a different role or firm. The test is whether the course maintains or improves your skills for your current duties, or is likely to increase income from your current employment — not whether it helps you move on.
• Insurance claims outside the two permitted categories. Only professional indemnity insurance and income-protection (loss of employment income) insurance are deductible; general insurance premiums are private.
• Round-number WFH hours with no supporting diary. The fixed rate needs a record of actual hours worked from home for the whole year.

Records you need

• A record of hours worked from home for the whole income year — a diary, timesheet or calendar kept as you go, not an estimate reconstructed at tax time.
• Renewal invoices for your practising certificate, memberships and Supreme Court library fee, dated to show they relate to the year you’re claiming, not the year you were admitted.
• Receipts for professional library items and equipment, with purchase date and cost, so items can be correctly split between the immediate $300-or-less deduction and decline in value.
• A basis for every work-use percentage you apply — for example, a representative record supporting how much of your briefcase, phone or device use is work-related.
• Evidence you were not reimbursed for any item you claim, particularly insurance premiums and equipment.
• If you claim phone, data and internet separately (that is, you are not using the fixed rate) and the total claim is $50 or less, you don’t need records; above $50 you need the bills plus evidence of work use.
• If your laundry claim is $150 or less, you don’t need written evidence — but the clothing itself must still be protective, occupation-specific, or a registered/compulsory uniform, not a business suit.
• If your total work-related claim (including laundry, excluding car, travel and overtime meal allowance expenses) is $300 or less, you don’t need receipts — but you must still be able to show how you calculated the claim.

Key takeaways

• Admission fees and the initial cost of your practising certificate are never deductible; the annual renewal of your practising certificate is.
• The same start-versus-renewal split applies to Supreme Court library fees: the one-off admission fee is private, the annual fee is deductible.
• Business attire is not deductible. The ATO uses “business attire worn by a lawyer” as its own example of conventional clothing, and this also rules out laundering it.
• The 70c fixed rate is usually the simplest way to claim working-from-home running costs, but it rules out separate phone, internet, electricity and stationery claims.
• Professional indemnity insurance and income-protection insurance are the two insurance types you can claim; other insurance premiums are private.
• Self-education and CPD must connect to the work you do now, not the job you’re chasing next.

Sources

• ATO: Lawyers – income and work-related deductions

Next step

• Compare your deductions against the categories above in the Work-Related Deductions Calculator
• Run your estimate in the Tax Return Calculator

Occupation guides

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

• Tax for Lawyers — practising certificate, CPD, memberships and court attire rules