COVID-19 Update – Employees working from home & What you can claim
Anthony Poole
|April 8, 2020
|New 80c/hr to cover ALL costs (for hours work between 1/03/2020 to 30/06/2020)
To make it easier for people to claim deductions for working from home, the ATO has announced a new shortcut method which will allow taxpayers to claim a rate of 80 cents per hour for all their running expenses, rather than needing to calculate costs for specific running expenses. Assistant Commissioner Karen Foat said the shortcut method “will only require you to keep a record of the number of hours worked from home”.
Claims for working from home expenses prior to 1 March 2020 cannot be calculated using the shortcut method, and must use the pre-existing working from home approach and requirements. The ATO will review the special arrangement for the next financial year as the COVID-19 situation progresses.
See additional resources available to taxpayers – Employees working from home.
This 80c/hr method covers everything such as:
* Electricity;
* Depreciation on capital items (furniture & computers)
* Cleaning
* Phone and Internet bills
* Computer consumables (paper, ink etc)
* Stationery
The current two methods (i.e. actual and 52c/hr) methods are still available for the full year. If you have any questions please make contact with us on 5437 9900.
