When submitting your tax return, you can claim deductions for certain expenses. Tax-deductible expenses are usually work-related and can help reduce your taxable income. To qualify for work-related tax deductions your expense must meet the following three requirements: You must have spent the money yourself and not be reimbursed for the expense The expense must directly relate to earning your income You must be able to produce a record of your expense (typically a receipt or bank statement) If an expense was for both work and personal use (e.g., computer, home internet) you will be required to indicate the portion of the expense used to further income-generating activity. Examples of work-related expenses : Work uniform (clothing, safety glasses, gloves etc) Work equipment (hand tools, protective equipment, bags used to transport work equipment) Work-related travel expenses (fuel, public transport expenses, parking, tolls) Examples of home office expenses: Mobile phone, computer, software and computer accessories Computer consumables (paper, ink, printer, stationary) Home office equipment (desks, chairs, lamps, printers, and furnishings) How do tax deductions work? Tax deductions offset your taxable income ultimately reducing the amount of tax you must pay. Tax deductions do not mean that you get the entire cost back from the ATO, rather the deductions subtract from your gross income reducing the amount of income tax. For example, if you earn $70,000 in a year and have $5,000 of expenses that are deductible, your taxable income for that financial year will be $65,000. To learn more about claims that you can make and how to make a claim, please visit the ATO website. Working from home during COVID-19? The ATO has introduced a shortcut method of calculating your working from home expenses. This is intended to simplify the calculation of work expenses to minimise record keeping requirements and will apply up until 30 June 2022. To be eligible you must have worked from home, incurred additional running expenses, and have a record of the number of hours worked from home. Using this method, you can claim 80 cents per hour for each hour you work from home. However, if you choose this method, you can’t claim any other expenses even if you bought new equipment To learn more about the shortcut method click here .