Today many workers travel to remote areas to work for several weeks at a time and return home for a week or two. Because a lot of these places of employment are in remote areas and costly to get to, many expect that they should be able to claim their costs of getting to work as a tax deduction.
Claiming travel expenses for Fly-In-Fly-Out and Drive-In-Drive-Out workers is often confusing. We always hear ‘my work mate is claiming all his travel costs, why can’t I?’ To dispel the myths we have summed up below exactly what you can and can’t claim when it comes to travel expenses for FIFO and DIDO workers.
You cannot claim your travel expenses (this includes motor vehicle expenses, airfares, taxis and other public transport) for travelling between your home and the place of departure as nominated by your employer under FIFO arrangements.
You can claim deductions for your car expenses from home to work if you had to carry bulky tools and equipment that you are required to use at work, as long as there is no secure area provided to leave them on site. A trip from your workplace to home carrying bulky equipment so that you can do work at home would not be deductible because you only take them home as a matter of convenience not necessity.
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