2026 Tax Time in Australia: 8 Deductions Most Individuals Miss

Tax time is here again — you can lodge your 2025–26 return from 1 July. Every year plenty of Melbourne workers rush their return and quietly leave money on the table by skipping deductions they were fully entitled to claim. Here are the eight we see missed most often. If you spent the money to earn your income and you kept a record, each one is worth checking.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) lets you deduct expenses that are directly connected to earning your assessable income, that you paid for yourself, and that your employer did not reimburse. Simple enough in principle — but the detail is where the dollars hide. We have ordered these roughly from most to least commonly overlooked.

1. Working-from-home costs

For 2025–26 the fixed-rate method is 70 cents per hour worked from home, covering electricity, internet, phone and stationery. You need a full record of the actual hours you worked from home — a timesheet or diary for the whole year, not a “representative four weeks” estimate. If your real costs are higher, the actual-cost method may give a bigger claim, but you must keep bills and evidence of your work-use portion.

2. Work-related expenses you paid yourself

Tools, equipment, professional books, industry subscriptions, software, union or professional-association fees, and the work-use share of your phone and internet can all be deductible. Items costing $300 or less are usually claimable in full in the year you buy them; above that, you generally depreciate the cost over its effective life.

3. Car and travel

Driving between different work locations during the day (not your ordinary commute) can be claimed using the cents-per-kilometre method (a set rate, capped at 5,000 km) or the logbook method. Accommodation, meals and transport on genuine work trips may also be deductible. The key is keeping a logbook and your receipts.

4. Self-education

If a course has a direct connection to your current job — maintaining or improving the skills you already use — the course fees, textbooks and some travel can be deductible. Watch the trap: study taken to change careers or move into a new field is generally not claimable.

5. Tax agent fees

What you paid a registered tax agent or accountant last year to prepare your return — including travel to manage your tax affairs — is deductible in this year’s return. Using a professional often pays for part of itself.

6. Income protection insurance

Premiums for income protection insurance that you pay for yourself outside super are usually deductible. Life, total-and-permanent-disability (TPD) and trauma cover premiums generally are not, so a bundled policy needs to be split to claim only the deductible part.

7. Charitable donations

Gifts of $2 or more to organisations with deductible gift recipient (DGR) status are deductible. Buying raffle tickets, a charity dinner, or anything where you receive something in return usually is not. Keep the receipt — the amount comes straight off your taxable income.

8. Investment-related expenses

Costs of earning investment income — interest on an investment loan, dividend reinvestment plan fees, ongoing investment management or adviser fees — are often overlooked by individuals. Rental properties have their own separate claims for depreciation and borrowing costs, so they are worth working through on their own.

The real key: records and data matching

No record, no deduction. The ATO generally expects you to keep supporting documents for five years, and it automatically matches your return against data from banks, employers, share registries, gig-economy platforms and insurers. Understating income or overstating deductions can trigger a review. The safe approach is to file digital receipts throughout the year and have an accountant check your return before you lodge.