| Disclaimer This edited version will be removed from the Database after 30 September 2025. If you believe the issues detailed in this edited version warrant retention in an alternative form, email publicguidance@ato.gov.au This edited version has been archived due to the length of time since original publication. It should not be regarded as indicative of the ATO's current views. The law may have changed since original publication, and views in the edited version may also be affected by subsequent precedents and new approaches to the application of the law. You cannot rely on this record in your tax affairs. It is not binding and provides you with no protection (including from any underpaid tax, penalty or interest). In addition, this record is not an authority for the purposes of establishing a reasonably arguable position for you to apply to your own circumstances. For more information on the status of edited versions of private advice and reasons we publish them, see PS LA 2008/4. |
Edited version of private ruling
Authorisation Number: 1011475806026
This edited version of your ruling will be published in the public Register of private binding rulings after 28 days from the issue date of the ruling. The attached private rulings fact sheet has more information.
Please check this edited version to be sure that there are no details remaining that you think may allow you to be identified. Contact us at the address given in the fact sheet if you have any concerns.
Ruling
Subject: Home to work travel expenses
Question and answer:
Are you entitled to claim a deduction for the cost of taxi fares incurred in travelling to and from work?
No.
This ruling applies for the following period:
Year ended 30 June 2010
The scheme commenced on:
1 July 2009
Relevant facts and circumstances
You work on a site.
You fly into and out of the site.
You hire a taxi to transport yourself to and from the airport, for which you incur an expense.
Relevant legislation provision/s:
Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 Section 8-1
Reasons for decision
Section 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997) deals with general deductions and allows a deduction for all losses or outgoings to the extent to which they are incurred in gaining or producing assessable income, except to the extent that they are outgoings of a capital, private or domestic nature.
The principle that travel to and from work is ordinarily not deductible was settled by the decision in Lunney v. Federal Commissioner of Taxation (1958) 100 CLR 478 (Lunney's case). In this case, the Full High Court held that 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 travel is considered to be of an essentially private or domestic nature.
Application to your circumstances
The expense you incur in travelling by taxi between your home and the airport is an expense incurred in getting to a place where you earn your assessable income rather than in actually earning this income. Accordingly and consistent with the decision in Lunney's case, the expenses you incur for taxi fares to and from the airport as part of your home to work travel are private in nature. Therefore, you are not entitled to a deduction for them under section 8-1 of the ITAA 1997.