tax claims (1 Viewer)

[Led-Zep]

ok i wasnt sure where this would go so i thought here is a decent place. for u accounting and non accounting ppl, is it possible to claim train travel to and from a full time job in ur tax claims? on the ato site it says that you can claim direct travel to work, and if its under 6 nights per week you would need written evidence? however an accountant had just told my sister that you cant claim train travel, even if it says so on the ato? is the accountant wrong, misinformed, or am i incorrect?

 

[wuddie]

as far as i know, even if you can claim travel expenses, you will need some kind of written evidence. otherwise everyone will say they travel 50km one way to work, 6 days a week, and with the price of petrol, that's going to be a mammoth total.

ring up the ato and see what they say. i don't trust accountants on these stuff because what they know you can probably also find out through ato, and be sure that you'll be told the right thing.

 

[Led-Zep]

how would u attain written evidence tho? would u have needed to keep all the recepits? or just a written note from your employer? how would that work. and yes i dont trust that one accountant at all, i have a different one to my sister who has claimed petrol etc for me, so i dont see why its impossible to claim train travel.

 

[pete_mate]

there are the rules, and then there are the realities. Sometimes these are differant, You need to talk to someone experienced to work out what you can get away with.

 

[roadcone]

No, you cannot claim a deduction for travel between your private house and workplace.

You can claim travel between work and uni, for example, if you are studying a degree/course that has a sufficient relationship to your current employment. In addition you can claim a deduction if you are travelling between workplaces.

Anyway in my opinion you sould just claim your $300 at D5 and stop worrying about your 15 or 30c in each dollar that you possibly could have claimed (assuming you earn <75k).

 

[Led-Zep]

if thats the case then why does it say this on the ATO website,

Travel expenses

You can claim travel expenses directly connected with your work. If your travel was partly private and partly for work, you can claim only the part that related to work.
source:
http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/c.../002/013/008/003&mnu=924&mfp=001/002&st=&cy=1

that basically says u can claim travel costs as long as its not private travel, eg car, but if its train u should be able to. ill just ask my accountant. as its not for me as im still at uni, but my sister who is in full time employment, not at uni, and travels by train 5 days a week to work.

 

[roadcone]

if thats the case then why does it say this on the ATO website,

Travel expenses

You can claim travel expenses directly connected with your work. If your travel was partly private and partly for work, you can claim only the part that related to work.
source:
http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/c.../002/013/008/003&mnu=924&mfp=001/002&st=&cy=1

that basically says u can claim travel costs as long as its not private travel, eg car, but if its train u should be able to. ill just ask my accountant. as its not for me as im still at uni, but my sister who is in full time employment, not at uni, and travels by train 5 days a week to work.

No. This is referring to travel that you undertake connected to work - e.g. I have to travel (via train, taxi, plane, car, boat, however you would like) to a client and work doesn't reimburse me.

Train travel directly to and from work is actually private expense. See case Lunney v FCT. In a nutshell, Lunney claimed deductions for the cost of travel to and from work; Commissioner denied deduction on basis that the outgoing was not incurred for the purpose of gaining or producing assessable income and that in any case the expenditure was private and domestic in nature; taxpayer argued that it was a prerequisite for them gaining their assessable income and therefore deductible; court concluded that it was not deductible because it lacked the essential character and, as such, fell out of the definition (i.e. the expenditure is simply the consequence of living somewhere and working somewhere different).

I can assure you your accountant will tell you exactly the same thing. I can tell you this because accountants tend to think in fairly similar ways.

 

[Led-Zep]

ok cool thanks for that, was a bit confused anways. thanks.