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Edited version of your private ruling
Authorisation Number: 1012523466804
Ruling
Subject: Voluntary travel
Question
Are you entitled to a deduction for travel to familiarise yourself with bus routes?
Answer
No.
This ruling applies for the following period
Year ended 30 June 2013
The scheme commenced on
1 July 2012
Relevant facts
You are an employee bus driver.
You are given a new route to travel each two to four weeks and are provided with route maps for each route you travel.
Prior to starting to drive the route with passengers, you drive it in your own car in your own time.
You are not allowed to drive new routes in working hours.
Relevant legislative provisions
Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 Section 8-1
Reasons for decision
Work related expenses are generally deductible under section 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 where they have been incurred in the course of gaining or producing assessable income, unless the losses or outgoings are capital, or are of a capital, private or domestic nature.
To qualify for a deduction, it is not necessary for the employee to show that the claimed expenditure is incurred as an express or implied condition of employment.
Taxation Ruling IT 2198 discusses voluntary expenditure by employees and the relationship to income producing activities.
The Ruling states that where an employee taxpayer incurs expenditure voluntarily in carrying out the duties of his employment and it is not disqualified from deduction because it is of a capital, private or domestic nature, what is decisive in determining claims for income tax deductions is whether the expenditure has been incurred in gaining or producing assessable income. The requirement for deduction will be satisfied if the occasion of the expenditure is within the scope of the particular duties of employment. To put it another way, the requirement will be satisfied if the subject of the claim for income tax deduction is something that might ordinarily be expected to occur in carrying out the duties of the employment.
In your case, while it is accepted that driving a route prior to travelling it in the bus with passengers may make you feel more comfortable about undertaking the journey, the expense is not incurred in actually doing the job. Rather, as a route map is provided, the expense is incurred to acquaint you to the road conditions.
As the expense of driving the routes is not incurred in doing your job as a bus driver but rather to make you feel more comfortable about the road conditions, the expense is considered to be private or domestic in nature. Therefore, you are not entitled to a deduction for car expenses.