Income and deductions for small business

Phone expenses

If you use a phone exclusively for business, you can claim a deduction for the phone rental and calls, but not for installation costs.

If you use a phone for both business and private calls, you can claim a deduction for business calls and part of the rental costs. Use the following formula to work out the percentage of phone rental expenses you can claim.

You can identify business calls from an itemised phone account. If you do not have an itemised account, you can keep a record for a representative four-week period to work how many business calls you make on average for the entire year. You can only use this method if the amount of business calls you make does not change significantly from one month to another.

Sections within Claiming common deductions

• Advertising expenses
• Business travel expenses
• Fringe benefits tax
• Expenses related to your home work area
• Motor vehicle expenses
• Phone expenses
• Plant and equipment (depreciation)
• Super contributions
• Salary and wages
• Tax-related expenses
• Repairs, maintenance and replacement expenses