The ATO announced new legislation for home office expenses on the 1st March 2023, and have back dated them to the 1 July 2022. Meaning for the 2023 financial year you must keep records as per the method you intend on claiming.
So, what are the methods? From the 1st July 2022 there are two (2) methods. Taxpayers can continue to claim their actual expenses or, alternatively, they can use the revised fixed-rate method.
The difference, using the revised fixed rate method means an employee can claim $0.67 per hour but no other home office expenses can be claimed (ie. an employee using this method can no longer claim expenses for energy, internet, mobile and home phone, and stationery and computer consumables for the income year).
The most important part, a logbook must also be kept for the whole year!
How to keep a logbook in TaxTank.
Keeping a logbook of hours you worked from home in Taxtank is simple. From the work tank expense tab choose the 'Add' button to add an expense. Then choose category 'Home office hours - work related' and add in a description, date and number of hours.
The system will automatically create an expense using the ATO's claim rate of $0.67, and you can see each record logged in the work tank.
Need to export your home office hours for the ATO?
No problems, select 'Reports' from the right hand menu and then select the 'Transactional Report' from the top of the list.
In the search bar start typing the category 'Home office hours - work related' to show your logged home office hours. Then select the 'Export' button and choose the format you need (ie. either PDF or Excel) and you're done!
