Tax deductions in Australia, by occupation
You can claim money you spent earning your income — a cost you paid yourself, were not reimbursed for, and can prove. What that covers depends on the work you do: find your occupation for the deductions that usually apply, and the ones that catch people out.
Build your checklist in the finderCreative & digital
Content creators & influencers
As a content creator you can generally claim the gear, software, phone and internet you use to make content — and the part most people miss is that gifted products and platform tips count as income you must declare.
What you can claim →Streamers & gamers
As a streamer you can generally claim the PC, peripherals and capture gear you stream with, plus the work share of your internet — and subs, bits, donations and tournament winnings from a business activity are income you declare.
What you can claim →Online sellers & resellers
If you sell online you can generally claim the cost of your stock, platform and payment fees, packaging and postage — and the point where a hobby becomes a business is what decides whether you declare the income at all.
What you can claim →Designers & digital freelancers
As a designer you can generally claim your software subscriptions, the hardware you work on, portfolio and website costs, and the materials that go into the work.
What you can claim →Performing artists & musicians
As a performing artist you can generally claim your instruments and equipment, coaching and lessons that maintain your craft, agent commission, and travel to auditions and performances.
What you can claim →Trades & construction
Tradies
As a tradie you can generally claim the tools, protective gear, and work-related vehicle travel you pay for yourself — the things you buy to actually do the job.
What you can claim →Electricians
As an electrician you can generally claim the test instruments and insulated tools you buy yourself, the renewals that keep your licence and endorsements current, and travel between sites.
What you can claim →Plumbers
As a plumber you can generally claim the tools and machines you buy yourself, the revalidations that keep your endorsements current, tool insurance, and the running costs of the van.
What you can claim →Carpenters
As a carpenter you can generally claim the tools and consumables you buy yourself, the site tickets you keep current, protective gear, and travel between sites.
What you can claim →Painters
As a painter you can generally claim spray and access equipment, the consumables that get used up on every job, respiratory protection, and travel between sites.
What you can claim →Cleaners
As a cleaner you can generally claim the supplies and equipment you buy, protective clothing, and the cost of driving between clients during the day.
What you can claim →Mechanics
As a mechanic you can generally claim the tools and equipment you buy, protective clothing and its laundering, and licences or training tied to your current work.
What you can claim →Driving & delivery
Rideshare & delivery drivers
As a rideshare or delivery driver you can generally claim the work portion of your car running costs, your phone and data, and app or platform fees.
What you can claim →Truck drivers
As a truck driver you can generally claim meal costs on eligible overnight trips, your work gear and protective clothing, and licence and union fees.
What you can claim →Bus & coach drivers
Bus and coach work splits sharply at the depot gate: a regular route rarely produces travel or meal claims, while overnight charter work can produce quite a few.
What you can claim →Health & education
Nurses & midwives
As a nurse or midwife you can generally claim your uniforms and laundry, professional registration and memberships, and work-related self-education.
What you can claim →Teachers
As a teacher you can generally claim classroom supplies you buy, work-related self-education, home-office running costs for marking and planning, and union fees.
What you can claim →Fitness instructors & personal trainers
As a fitness instructor or personal trainer you can generally claim equipment you buy, music and programming subscriptions, first-aid and certification costs, and travel between clients or venues.
What you can claim →Doctors & medical practitioners
As a doctor you can generally claim your AHPRA registration, medical indemnity insurance, work-related self-education and CPD, and professional equipment.
What you can claim →Aged & disability care workers
As an aged-care or disability support worker you can generally claim uniforms and laundry, first-aid training, travel between clients, and required checks.
What you can claim →Pharmacists
A pharmacist deduction list is unusually predictable: the same registration, indemnity and CPD costs recur every year, which makes them easy to claim and easy to forget.
What you can claim →Childcare & early educators
As a childcare worker or early educator you can generally claim first-aid training, required checks, resources you buy for the room, and work-related self-education.
What you can claim →Services & hospitality
Hospitality workers
As a hospitality worker you can generally claim compulsory logo’d uniforms and their laundry, safety footwear, and required certificates like your RSA.
What you can claim →Hairdressers & beauty therapists
As a hairdresser or beauty therapist you can generally claim the scissors and tools you buy, products used in your work, and self-education that builds your skills.
What you can claim →Real estate agents
As a real estate agent you can generally claim work-related car travel, marketing costs you fund yourself, your phone, and licence and training costs.
What you can claim →Retail & sales workers
As a retail or sales worker you can generally claim compulsory logo’d uniforms and their laundry, work-related training, and union or association fees.
What you can claim →Security guards
As a security guard you can generally claim your licence renewal, compulsory uniforms and laundry, required equipment, and first-aid training.
What you can claim →Flight attendants & cabin crew
Cabin crew returns turn on two things most occupations never meet: an allowance that may not cover what a layover actually costs, and grooming rules that feel compulsory but are mostly not deductible.
What you can claim →Professional & office
IT professionals
As an IT professional you can generally claim home-office running costs, work hardware and software, self-education, and professional memberships.
What you can claim →Office & admin workers
As an office or admin worker you can generally claim working-from-home running costs, the work portion of your phone, self-education, and professional or union fees.
What you can claim →Lawyers
As a lawyer you can generally claim your practising certificate, CPD and professional memberships, legal reference subscriptions, and home-office running costs.
What you can claim →Accountants & bookkeepers
As an accountant or bookkeeper you can generally claim your professional membership, CPD, work software and subscriptions, and home-office running costs.
What you can claim →Engineers
Engineering claims sit in two piles that behave very differently: the credentials that keep you registered, deductible year after year, and the degree that got you there, which never is.
What you can claim →The deduction labels on your tax return, D1 to D15
Every deduction on an individual return goes on one of fifteen labels. Employees mostly use the first five; the rest cover investments, donations, super and a handful of special cases.
| Label | What goes there |
|---|---|
| D1 | Work-related car expenses — a car you own or lease, used for work trips (not ordinary trips between home and work). |
| D2 | Work-related travel expenses — fares, and accommodation and meals when work keeps you away overnight. |
| D3 | Work clothing, laundry and dry-cleaning expenses — uniforms, occupation-specific and protective clothing, and cleaning them. |
| D4 | Work-related self-education expenses — courses that relate to the job you do now. |
| D5 | Other work-related expenses — working from home, phone and internet, tools and equipment, union fees, subscriptions. |
| D6 | Low-value pool deduction — the yearly deduction for assets you keep in a low-value pool. |
| D7 | Interest income deductions — costs of earning interest, such as fees on an account held for investment. |
| D8 | Dividend deductions — costs of earning dividends, such as interest on money borrowed to buy shares. |
| D9 | Gifts or donations — gifts of $2 or more to registered deductible gift recipients. |
| D10 | Cost of managing tax affairs — your tax agent’s fee and similar costs. |
| D11 | Deductible amount of undeducted purchase price of a foreign pension or annuity. |
| D12 | Personal superannuation contributions — contributions you have told your fund you intend to claim. |
| D13 | Deduction for project pool. |
| D14 | Forestry managed investment scheme deduction. |
| D15 | Other deductions — for example, income protection insurance premiums. |
In 2Fin, the ATO myDeductions export and the accountant ledger suggest a line from D1 to D15 for each work expense (Premium and up), so the list you hand over is already sorted the way the return asks for it. Working from home sits in D5 — the fixed rate or actual cost guide shows which claims more. On a payslip? 2Fin for employees · Employed with an ABN too? Both, in one app.
Labels from the ATO's individual tax return instructions 2026. General information, not tax advice.
Deductions, answered
Questions people ask before they pick a guide
- Can I claim work expenses without receipts?
- It depends on the year. For your 2025–26 return (the year to 30 June 2026): if your total work-related expenses come to $300 or less, the ATO does not require written evidence, but you must have spent the money, it must relate to your job, and you need to be able to show how you worked out the claim. Car expenses (which follow their own cents-per-kilometre or logbook rules), travel allowance expenses, overtime meal allowance expenses and award transport payments allowance expenses are outside that $300, and laundry of work clothing has its own limit of $150 without written evidence. Working from home by the fixed-rate method always needs a record of the actual hours you worked from home and one record for each kind of running expense the rate covers, whatever your total. Above $300 you need written evidence for every claim, not only the part over $300. From 1 July 2026 — the 2026–27 return onwards — the $300 and $150 exceptions and the award transport exemption no longer apply to anyone. Eligible employees can instead take a standard deduction of up to $1,000 without receipts; if you claim more than that, you need written evidence for every work-related expense you claim. Union and professional association fees, gifts and donations and the cost of managing your tax affairs are claimed separately, with their own records, and do not reduce the $1,000.
- What goes in D5, other work-related expenses?
- D5 is where most employee claims that are not car, travel, clothing or study land: working from home, the work share of your phone and internet, tools and equipment (items of $300 or less in full, dearer ones over their effective life), union and professional fees, and subscriptions you need for the job. Working from home can be claimed by the fixed rate or by actual costs — the working-from-home guide in Learn compares the two.
- What records do I need to keep for a deduction?
- Enough to show what you bought, when, what it cost and how it relates to your work — a receipt, invoice or bank record, plus a note of any work-use split. The ATO generally expects you to be able to back up every claim, and each guide here ends with that reminder. Fin attaches receipts to the transactions they back as they arrive, and the receipts guide in Learn covers what counts as evidence.
- Can I claim something my employer partly reimbursed?
- Only the part you paid for yourself. If your employer reimbursed the full cost there is nothing left to claim; if they covered a portion, the unreimbursed balance is what the ATO generally treats as yours to consider. Items an employer supplied or paid for sit in the “usually not deductible” list on every guide here, so check that section before adding a claim.
- I’m employed and also earn on an ABN — which guide applies?
- Start with the occupation guide for the work itself, then read the sole-trader deductions guide in Learn for the business side. The occupation guides point out where employee and ABN treatment differs — tools and equipment are the usual example — so you can see which rule your side income follows. Keep the two income streams separate in your records: in 2Fin each expense is tagged business, work-related or personal, so the job’s claims and the business’s claims don’t mix.
- How current are these guides?
- Every occupation guide shows the month it was last checked against ATO guidance. Thresholds such as the instant asset write-off cap move each financial year, so the guides describe the treatment in plain English and send you to the ATO for the exact current figure rather than quoting one that could age. The ATO’s own occupation index, linked from every guide, is the authority to confirm against.
- Does Fin claim these deductions for me?
- Fin surfaces them, and you decide. As your transactions arrive, anything that looks claimable for the way you work is flagged with the receipt attached, so by tax time you have a categorised list with the evidence behind it. You or your registered tax agent then decide what to claim and lodge it, using the tax-ready export.
- What if my occupation isn’t listed?
- Pick the closest guide in the same group — the deductions for a painter and a carpenter overlap far more than they differ — and use the ATO’s own occupation and industry index, linked from every guide, for the official list. The creator, streamer, seller, designer and performer guides are also published for the other countries listed on this page, each under that country’s own rules.
Not sure where to start? Try the free income tax calculator, or read the sole-trader deductions guide.
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