Edited version of your written advice

Authorisation Number: 1013031060282

Date of advice: 8 June 2016

Ruling

Subject: Accommodation expenses

Question

Are you entitled to a deduction for the accommodation expenses incurred to stay close to your workplace?

Answer

No.

This ruling applies for the following periods:

Year ended 30 June 2016

The scheme commences on:

1 July 2015

Relevant facts and circumstances

Your permanent place of residence is located in a rural area.

You currently work as a professional contractor in a city.

Due to the excessive commute time to your place of work you stay in a hotel or serviced apartment on the nights that you work and are working the next day.

Your permanent place of residence is your only property and it is available for your immediate use at all times.

You do not receive any allowance for accommodation or travel from your employer.

Relevant legislative provisions

Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 Section 8-1

Reasons for decision

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. 

Certain expenditure is incurred in order to be in a position to be able to derive assessable income, for example unless one arrives at work it is not possible to derive income. This does not mean that the expenditure is incurred in the course of gaining or producing assessable income. Rather, the expenses are incurred to enable the taxpayer to commence income earning activities (Lunney & Hayley v. Federal Commissioner of Taxation (1958) 100 CLR 478; (1958) 11 ATD 404; (1958) 7 AITR 166).

Generally accommodation expenses incurred by a person, who lives away from home in order to carry out employment duties at the place of employment, will not be deductible. Expenses of this nature are private, or incurred before or after the activity of earning assessable income. The distance from a previous home does not alter the essential character of any accommodation expenses incurred as they remain private in nature.

The issue of expenses incurred in relation to accommodation near the work place while maintaining a family residence in another location has been considered by the courts on a number of occasions.

In the case Federal Commissioner of Taxation v. Charlton 84 ATC 4415; (1984) 15 ATR 711 (Charlton's Case), the taxpayer was a pathologist employed to carry out autopsies for the local coroner in Bendigo. He rented a flat in Bendigo while maintaining a permanent family home in Melbourne, located approximately 150kms away. There was evidence that there was difficulty in finding motel accommodation in Bendigo and the taxpayer was reluctant to make the round trip back to Melbourne without rest.  The taxpayer claimed that the rental expenses were incurred in the production of assessable income. 

Justice Crockett of the Supreme Court of Victoria ruled:

The Commissioner contends (correctly in my view) that, if the taxpayer should choose to reside so far from the place where it is necessary for him to be in order to gain his income that he, not only needs to incur expense in travelling to that place but, also to incur expense in the provision to him of some accommodation transitory or discontinuous in its use and secondary to or temporarily supplemental of his actual home, then that expense, too, is for the same reason non-deductible.

The taxpayer's election to live in Melbourne and not in Bendigo meant that the rental expended on the flat in order to enable him to secure accommodation in which to recuperate from the rigours of travel and the nature of his work was an expenditure dictated not by his work but by private considerations.

This is supported by the decision in Federal Commissioner of Taxation v. Toms 89 ATC 4373; (1989) 20 ATR 466 (Toms Case), where the Federal Court held that expenses incurred in relation to accommodation near the work place while maintaining a family residence in another location were not an allowable deduction as they were considered to be private expenses.

Your circumstances are considered to be comparable to those in Charlton's case and Toms' case. While we acknowledge that your workplace is some distance from your residential address, you still have a choice of where you live and who you are employed for. Consequently, any accommodation expenses you may incur to stay in the city are considered to be private in nature. Also, these expenses will be incurred to put yourself in a position to perform your duties and not in the actual performance of those duties. Therefore, these expenses are not deductible under section 8-1 of the ITAA 1997.