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Ruling

Subject: Parking expenses

Question

Are you entitled to a deduction for airport parking expenses when travelling on work?

Answer

Yes.

This ruling applies for the following period

Year ended 30 June 2008

Year ended 30 June 2009

Year ended 30 June 2010

Year ended 30 June 2011

Year ending 30 June 2012

The scheme commenced on

1 July 2007

Relevant facts

You work in the medical profession.

On a number of days each week you fly to regional areas of the state to one of six different hospitals districts, returning home each night.

On these days you use your work car to travel to the airport and incur parking fees.

The parking fees are not fully reimbursed by your employer.

Once at your destination, you are met at the airport and supplied with a car and then visit 4-6 patients in their homes.

Assumptions

None.

Relevant legislative provisions

Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 Section 8-1.

Reasons for decision

Summary

On the days you are required to travel to regional areas, it is accepted that a fundamental part of your work involves travel. Your work duties are therefore itinerant in nature and your parking expenses are deductible.

Detailed reasoning

Section 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 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.

Generally, the expenses of travel to and from work are not deductible because it is considered to be a private expense. However, a deduction is allowable for the cost of travelling to and from work if an employee's work is itinerant (Taxation Ruling TR 95/34).

There have been a number of cases where deductions for transport expenses were allowed on the basis of the taxpayer's shifting places of work. Shifting places of work is another term for itinerancy. Based on the characteristics that have emerged from these cases as being indicators of itinerancy, your employment is considered to be of an itinerant nature because:

· travel is a fundamental part of your work as the nature of your employment itself makes travelling a necessary element of your duties

· you have a web of workplaces as you earn your income from performing your duties at several workplaces, travelling to several locations in any one day, and

· you continually travel from one workplace to another, regularly working at more than one workplace before returning home each day.

Conclusion

In your case, on a number of days each week you are required to fly to regional areas of the state, to one of six different hospital districts. While there, you visit 4-6 patients in their homes each day, before returning home each night.

On the days you are required to travel to regional areas, it is accepted that a fundamental part of your work involves travel. That is, on these days your work is itinerant in nature. Therefore, you are entitled to a deduction under section 8-1 of the ITAA 1997 for the cost of travel between your home and the various locations where you perform your employment duties. As your travel costs include airport parking expenses, you are entitled to a deduction for these expenses.