You may be able to claim deductions for your work-related expenses. These are expenses you incur to earn your income working in the building and construction industry.
To claim a deduction for work-related expenses:
- you must have spent the money and you weren’t reimbursed
- the expense must directly relate to earning your income
- you must have a record to prove it (usually a receipt).
You can only claim a deduction for the work-related portion of an expense. You can’t claim a deduction for any part of an expense that is not directly related to earning your income or that is private.
You can use the myDeductions tool in the ATO app to help keep track of your work-related expenses. It’s an easy way to capture information on the go and makes tax time quicker. You can upload your expenses to your tax return. If you lodge your tax return with a tax agent:
- they can access your uploaded data through their practice management software, or
- you can email a copy of your records to them from the app.
For a summary of common deductions, see Construction workers deductions (PDF, 261KB)This link will download a file.
A summary of common deductions is also available in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese. Go to, Other languages. Select your language, then Individuals from the left-hand menu. A link to the summary will be in the list on this page.
(Building and construction employees – income and work-related deductions, 2021)
Ato.gov.au. 2021. Building and construction employees – income and work-related deductions. [online] Available at: <https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/In-detail/Occupation-and-industry-specific-guides/Building-and-construction-employees—income-and-work-related-deductions/?anchor=Deductions#Deductions> [Accessed 15 February 2021].
