Australia Work From Home Deduction Calculator

About the Australia Work From Home Deduction Calculator

Work out your working from home deduction for an Australian income year both ways the ATO allows, and see which gives more. The fixed rate method claims a rate for every hour you worked from home — 70 cents for 2024–25 and 2025–26 — which covers your electricity and gas, phone, internet, stationery and computer consumables; on top of it you claim the decline in value of your equipment and furniture, their repairs and, with a dedicated home office, its cleaning (ATO). The actual cost method claims what you actually spent, apportioned to your work use (ATO).

Enter your hours, your equipment and your running costs: the calculator works out the decline in value of each item (an item of $300 or less used mainly for work is claimed at once), totals both methods with the cents disregarded as the ATO asks, shows the tax the deduction saves at your rate and lists the records each method needs. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

Without a pass the page gives a free preview of your own result: your deduction in full, with the first rows of each table and the first step of the working; a Pro pass opens both totals, every line and item, the tax saved, the copy, the CSV and printing.

The fixed rate method

• Rate: 70 cents for each hour you work from home in 2024–25 and 2025–26; 67 cents in 2022–23 and 2023–24 (ATO). The ATO has not published a rate for 2026–27 yet: until it does, the calculator uses the rate you type (70 cents to start with).
• What it covers: electricity and gas for heating, cooling and lighting, home and mobile internet and data, mobile and home phone use, and stationery and computer consumables. You cannot claim these again separately.
• What you add: the decline in value of equipment and furniture you use for work, their repairs, and — with a dedicated home office — cleaning it.
• Records: the actual hours you worked from home for the whole year (a timesheet, roster or diary kept at the time — an estimate is not accepted), and at least one record of each kind of expense the rate covers, such as one electricity bill.
• Your claim: the total with the cents disregarded, not rounded.

The actual cost method

You claim the additional running expenses you actually incur, apportioned to your work use (ATO):

• Energy: the power of the heating, cooling and lighting you use while working (kW) × what a kWh costs × the hours you use them for work — 1.09 kW × 28 cents × 768 hours = $234.39 in the ATO’s example. No additional cost arises if others are in the room anyway.
• Phone and internet: the work share of your bills, worked out from a continuous 4-week record of your use.
• Stationery, equipment and repairs: their work share. Cleaning only for a dedicated home office: the cost × the office’s share of the floor area × your work use.
• Records: your hours for the whole year or a 4-week diary of your usual pattern, the receipts and bills, and how you worked out each amount.

Equipment and furniture

An item that costs $300 or less, used mainly (more than half the time) for work and not part of a set or identical items costing more than $300 together, is claimed in full — its work share — in the year you buy it (ATO). Anything dearer declines in value over its effective life from the day you first use it (ATO):

• Prime cost: cost × days held ÷ 365 × 100% ÷ effective life, each year until the cost is used up.
• Diminishing value: base value × days held ÷ 365 × 200% ÷ effective life, where the base value is the cost in the first year and the value left after that.

Only the work share is deducted, but the item’s value falls by the whole decline. Once you choose a method for an item you keep it. The effective life is the one in the Commissioner’s effective life determination, or your own estimate.

Which method to use

You can use either method, as long as you meet its rules and keep its records. The fixed rate method is simpler and needs no bills apportioned, but a record of every hour; the actual cost method can give more when you have high running costs, such as heating or cooling a separate room, or you use your own phone and internet a lot for work. Items your employer provides or pays back, and general household items such as tea and coffee, cannot be claimed under either.

Official sources

• ATO: Working from home expenses
• ATO: Fixed rate method
• ATO: Actual cost method
• ATO: Assets costing $300 or less and assets costing more than $300
• ATO: Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2023/1
• ATO: Home office expenses calculator
• ATO: Tax rates for Australian residents

Limitations

• For employees working from home. Occupancy expenses (rent, mortgage interest, rates and insurance) are allowed only in limited cases and are not included (ATO); a home-based business follows other rules.
• Items in a low-value pool are not worked out: enter only the items you depreciate one by one or claim at once.
• For an item you own with someone else, enter the cost of your share.
• The tax saved uses the resident rates, the low income tax offset and the Medicare levy for a single person; offsets, the Medicare levy surcharge and study loans are left out.
• The fixed rate for 2026–27 is not published yet: check the ATO’s rate before you lodge.

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