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Edited version of your private ruling
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Ruling
Subject: Accommodation and travel
Question 1
Are you entitled to a deduction for rental expenses?
Answer
No.
Question 2
Are you entitled to a deduction for travel between your usual residence and your rented accommodation?
Answer
No.
This ruling applies for the following period
Year ended 30 June 2012
The scheme commenced on
1 July 2011
Relevant facts
You live with your spouse in one location and have rented accommodation close to your work location.
Relevant legislative provisions
Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 Section 8-1
Reasons for decision
Accommodation
Section 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 allows a deduction for all outgoings to the extent to which they are incurred in gaining or producing assessable income, or are necessarily incurred in carrying on a business for that purpose. However, a deduction is not allowable for outgoings that are of a capital, private or domestic nature.
Generally, accommodation expenses are private in nature and are not deductible.
However, in Lunney v. FC of T (1958) 100 CLR 478 the Full High Court laid down the principle that for a deduction to be allowable it is not enough for the expenditure to be an essential prerequisite to the derivation of assessable income. In that case it was held that the costs incurred by a taxpayer in travelling to the place where they work are expenses incurred in order to enable them to earn income but are not expenses incurred in the course of earning that income.
The issue of expenses incurred in relation to accommodation near the work place while maintaining a family residence in another location was considered in FC of T v. Toms 89 ATC 4373; (1989) 20 ATR 466 (Toms' Case).
In Toms' Case, the taxpayer was a forest worker who during the working week lived in a caravan in a bush camp 108 kilometres from his family home in Grafton. He claimed it was too far to travel each day to his work in the forest, so that it was necessary to establish a caravan at the camp. He would return home on weekends. He claimed the costs of maintaining his caravan and other living expenses such as the cost of heating and lighting. The Federal Court considered that the caravan was rendered necessary as much by the taxpayer's choice of the place of his residence in Grafton as by his choice of employment in the forest, and its purpose was to enable him to retain his residence at Grafton although employed in the forest. It was held that the expenses incurred in relation to the temporary accommodation near the workplace while maintaining a family residence in another location were dictated not by his work but by private considerations, and therefore were not deductible.
You incur expenses for renting accommodation to enable you to work in a different location to where your principal residence is. However, as in Toms' Case, the expenses are a prerequisite to the earning of assessable income. They are incurred in order to enable you to earn income but are not incurred in the course of gaining or producing that income. A deduction is therefore not allowable for your rental accommodation expenses.
Travel
A deduction is generally not allowable for the cost of travel by an employee between two private residences as it is considered to be a private expense. Accordingly you are not entitled to a deduction for these expenses.
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