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Ruling

Subject: Travel, accommodation and meals

Question

Are you entitled to a deduction for the cost of travel, accommodation and meals while living at the work location?

Answer

No.

This ruling applies for the following period

Year ended 30 June 2009

Year ended 30 June 2010

Year ended 30 June 2011

Year ended 30 June 2012

Year ended 30 June 2013

Year ended 30 June 2014

The scheme commenced on

1 July 2008

Relevant facts

Your residential home is in one location. You work in a different location.

You rent a house at the work location to live in while doing your work shifts and travel back home on your days off.

You incur rent, food and other living expenses in relation to the property at the work location

You also incur travelling expenses between your residential home and the property in the work location.

Relevant legislative provisions

Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 Section 8-1

Reasons for decision

Section 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 allows a deduction for all losses and outgoings to the extent to which they are incurred in gaining or producing assessable income except where the outgoings are of a capital, private or domestic nature, or relate to the earning of exempt income.

As a general rule, expenditure on meals and accommodation while working away from home is not allowed as a deduction. These costs are essentially 'living expenses' of a private or domestic nature. The fact that income cannot be earned unless certain expenses are necessarily incurred is not determinative of deductibility.

Where it has been established that a property used to accommodate a taxpayer amounts to a second residence, the Courts and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal have consistently held that the essential character of the expenses incurred is of a private or domestic nature unconnected with income-producing activities and, therefore, the expenses are not deductible. The reasoning in these cases is that a taxpayer's choice to establish a residence is not dictated by travel needs, but by considerations of a private or domestic nature. It follows that the required connection between second residence expenses and a taxpayer's income-producing activities is absent.

In FC of T v. Toms 89 ATC 4373; (1989) 20 ATR 466 the Federal Court disallowed a forest worker's deduction for the cost of maintaining a caravan and other living expenses. The taxpayer incurred the expenses in providing temporary accommodation at the base camp because the taxpayer had chosen to reside at a place far from the worksite. These expenses were dictated not by work but by private considerations.

In your case, you have established a second residence at a location close to your workplace. Your accommodation and meal expenses are considered to be of a private and domestic nature. Accordingly, a deduction for these expenses is not allowable.

Furthermore, as you have established a second residence, travel between the two residences is considered to be of a private nature and is not deductible.