Edited version of your private ruling

Authorisation Number: 1012516903472

Ruling

Subject: Travel expenses

Question

Are you entitled to a deduction for travel and accommodation expenses?

Answer

No

This ruling applies for the following period

Year ended 30 June 2013

The scheme commenced on

1 July 2012

Relevant facts

You work in a particular field.

You work on fixed period of time contracts.

After finishing your last contract you were unable to find any work in your hometown of City A, you decided to sign a contract to work interstate in City B.

You have had to organise temporary accommodation while in City B and travel every couple of weeks back to your home in City A.

You have incurred expenses on travel and accommodation.

Relevant legislative provisions

Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 Section 8-1

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.

Travel to and from work

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.

A deduction is generally not allowable for the cost of travel by an employee between home and their normal workplace as it is considered to be a private expense. The cost of travel between home and work is generally incurred to put the employee in a position to perform duties of employment, rather than in the performance of those duties: Taxation Ruling TR 95/34.

The essential character of travel between home and work is that of a private and domestic nature, related to personal and living expenses as part of the taxpayer's choice of where to live, in choosing to live away from and at what distance from work.

The travel expenses you incur are not incurred in the course of undertaking your income earning activities. Rather the expenses are incurred by you in putting yourself in a position where you can commence performing your duties. Therefore you are not entitled to a deduction for the travel expenses you incur as they are considered private in nature.

Accommodation expenses

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.

In your case, you incur expenses for accommodation due to having your home in one state and your employment in another. Whilst the expenses would not be incurred but for the distance of your work place from your family home, the expenses are a prerequisite to the earning of assessable income. That is, they are incurred in order to put you in a position to be able to earn income but are not incurred in the actual course of gaining or producing that income. Also, the expenses are considered to be private in nature as they are incurred due to your choice of where you live and where you work.

A deduction is therefore not allowable for your accommodation expenses.