As the situation around COVID-19 continues to develop, the ATO understands many employees are now working from home.

To make it easier when claiming a deduction for additional running costs you incur as a result of working from home, special arrangements have been announced.

A simplified method has been introduced that allows you to claim a rate of 80 cents per hour for all your running expenses, rather than having to calculate the additional amount you incurred for specific running expenses.

This simplified method will be available to use from 1 March 2020 until 30 June 2020. You may still use one of the existing methods to calculate your running expenses if you would prefer to.

You can claim a deduction of 80 cents for each hour you work from home due to COVID-19 as long as you are:

• Working from home to fulfil your employment duties and not just carrying out minimal tasks such as occasionally checking emails or taking calls; and
• Incurring additional deductible running expenses as a result of working from home.

You do not have to have a separate or dedicated area of your home set aside for working, such as a private study.

The shortcut method rate covers all deductible running expenses, including:

• electricity for lighting, cooling or heating and running electronic items used for work (for example your computer), and gas heating expenses
• the decline in value and repair of capital items, such as home office furniture and furnishings
• cleaning expenses
• your phone costs, including the decline in value of the handset
• your internet costs
• computer consumables, such as printer ink
• stationery
• the decline in value of a computer, laptop or similar device.

If you use the shortcut method to claim a deduction for your additional running expenses, you cannot claim a further deduction for any of the expenses listed above.

Remember to keep records of the number of hours you have worked from home as a result of COVID-19. Examples are timesheets, diary notes or rosters.

If you use the shortcut method to claim a deduction and you lodge your 2019–20 tax return through myGov or a tax agent, you must include the note ‘COVID-hourly rate’ in your tax return.

Find out more about claiming work from home expenses here.

Please contact our office on (08) 9392 7600 if you would like to speak to one of our specialised tax agents about claiming work from home deductions.