Work-related car expenses

Work-related car expenses are expenses you incurred as an employee for a car you:

• owned
• leased, or
• hired under a hire-purchase agreement.

What can you claim?

You can claim car expenses you incurred for work-related purposes in 2013–14.

You can also claim the cost of using your car to travel directly between two separate places of employment, for example, when you have a second job.

You cannot claim for the normal trip between home and work, unless:

• you use your car to carry bulky tools or equipment (such as an extension ladder or cello) which you use for work and cannot leave at work
• your home is a base for employment (you start work at home and travelled to a workplace to continue work for the same employer), or
• you have shifting places of employment (you regularly work at more than one place each day).

For examples of trips you can and cannot claim, see car and travel expenses.

Methods

You can choose one of the following methods to work out your work-related car expenses.

1. For work-related travel of 5,000 kilometres or less:

• cents per kilometre method, or
• logbook method.

2. For work-related travel over 5,000 kilometres:

• 12% of original value method
• one-third of actual expenses method, or
• logbook method.

If you qualify to use more than one method, you can use whichever gives you the largest deduction or is most convenient.

Cents per kilometre method

The most you can claim using this method is 5,000 kilometres per car, even if you travelled more. No written evidence of expenses is necessary with this method, but you may need to show us how you worked out your work-related kilometres (for example, by producing diary records of work-related trips).

Completing your tax return

1. Click on 'add expense' and enter the description (make/model) of the car.
2. Use the dropdown menu to select the calculation method you want to use.
3. If you are using the cents per kilometre method:

• select the engine type of your car (ordinary or rotary),
• use the dropdown menu to select the engine capacity of your car
• enter the number of business kilometres you travelled, and
• click on the calculate button.

Then click on 'Save'.

(You may want to work out your deduction using different methods to see which gives you the largest deduction and then save the one that does)

4. If you are using one of the other methods:

• work out your claim using the Work-related car expenses calculator  
• enter the total at 'Amount', and
• click on 'Save'.

5. If you are claiming for more than one car, click on the 'add expense' button and follow step 3 or 4 for each car.

Instructions on completing your individual tax return using myTax.