Do Breaks, Lunch and Calls Count as WFH Hours?
Do breaks count as work-from-home hours?
A break where you stop working doesn’t count, because the fixed rate is claimed for each hour you work from home. The ATO’s fixed rate method asks for a record of the actual hours you worked from home for the whole income year, and time off for lunch isn’t an hour worked.
The ATO doesn’t publish a minute-by-minute rule for how short a break has to be before you take it out. What it asks for is a record that reflects the hours you worked. So the honest test is simple: were you working?
A long lunch, the school run, a gym session or an hour on household jobs isn’t work. A minute to refill your water bottle between tasks is part of a working stretch, the same way it would be in an office. Most people’s judgement here is good. The risk is in totals that quietly include long gaps nobody checked.
Does lunch count?
No, not if you stop work for lunch. Take the lunch break out of your hours. If you work 8:30 to 5:00 at home and stop for 45 minutes at lunch, you worked 7 hours 45 minutes, not 8.5 hours.
If you genuinely work through lunch, eating at your desk while you answer emails, that time is work. Record what actually happened on the day, not what your contract says your lunch break is.
Do calls and meetings away from the computer count?
Yes, if they’re part of your job and you take them at home. A work call on your phone in the garden, a meeting where you step away from the screen, or reading a printed report on the couch are all work, even though your computer is idle.
This matters if your hours come from computer activity. A tracker that only sees keyboard and mouse use will undercount a day full of calls. Check those gaps and add the work time back in, with a note if your tool allows one.
The reverse also holds. Leaving your computer on while you do something else isn’t work. If your record shows the computer was active but you weren’t working, take that time out.
Do minor tasks like checking email count?
Not on their own. To use the fixed rate you need to be working from home to fulfil your employment duties, not just carrying out minimal tasks. PCG 2023/1, the ATO’s guideline for the method, gives occasionally checking emails or taking phone calls as examples of minimal tasks that aren’t enough.
That rule is about whether you’re working from home at all, not about a call in the middle of your working day. If you’re working at home and a call comes in, it’s part of the work. If you’re off for the evening and you glance at your inbox, that glance doesn’t make the evening a work-from-home hour.
How should I treat common situations?
Use the hours you worked. This table covers the common cases.
| Situation | Count it? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lunch break, not working | No | You weren’t working |
| Working lunch at your desk | Yes | You were working |
| Work call or video meeting at home, away from the computer | Yes | Part of your duties, at home |
| Reading work documents or thinking through a problem away from the screen | Yes | Part of your duties, at home |
| A minute to make a coffee between tasks | Part of the working stretch | Normal pause in work |
| School pick-up, exercise, errands, household jobs | No | Not work |
| Checking email once in the evening when you’re otherwise off | No | A minimal task |
| Computer left on and idle while you do something else | No | Not work, even if a tool logged it |
If you’re not sure about a regular pattern in your job, for example on-call time, a registered tax agent can tell you how it applies to you.
How do apps handle breaks?
Each app decides for itself, and none of those choices are ATO rules. An automatic tracker has to decide what a gap in activity means. Some count everything while the computer is on. Others stop counting after a few minutes without input and leave you to sort out the rest.
WFH Diary, as one example, counts a gap of under 15 minutes as work, and asks about any longer gap whether you were working (calls, meetings and reading count). It records your answer and when you gave it. The 15 minutes is a design choice to keep the record close to what really happened without asking you about every coffee. It isn’t a threshold the ATO sets.
Whatever you use, the test is the same. When you review a day, ask whether the total matches the time you worked. If it doesn’t, fix it then, while you still remember the day.
Why does this matter for the claim?
Small differences add up over a year. Thirty extra minutes a day, five days a week for 48 weeks, is 120 hours, which is $84 at 70 cents. That’s not a large amount, but it’s an amount you can’t support if the ATO asks how you worked out your hours.
Undercounting costs you too. A day of calls recorded as two hours of computer time understates your claim. A record you check day by day avoids both problems.
From 2026–27 there’s a further reason to get the total right. The new $1,000 standard deduction applies automatically to labour income, and you only itemise when your work expenses come to more. An accurate total tells you which way to go. See the $1,000 standard deduction vs the fixed rate.
What records should I keep for my hours?
A record of actual hours worked from home, kept at the time, for the full year. The ATO accepts timesheets, rosters, logs from time-tracking apps, or a diary (PCG 2023/1 para 58). Estimates and four-week sample diaries aren’t accepted for the fixed rate.
Your record doesn’t need to list every break. It does need to give a total for each day that reflects the time you worked. A diary that says “8:30–12:15, 1:00–5:00” is clearer than one that just says “8 hours”, because it shows the break was taken out.
Keep the records for five years from the date you lodge. If you missed some days, see what to do if you forgot to keep a diary.
Questions
Should I take my lunch break out of my WFH hours?
Yes, if you stopped working. The fixed rate is claimed for each hour you work from home, so a lunch break isn’t work time. If you genuinely worked through lunch, that time counts. Record what happened on the day.
Do phone calls count if I’m away from my computer?
Yes, if they’re work calls taken at home as part of your job. Being away from the screen doesn’t matter. What matters is that you were working. Check any record built from computer activity, because it can miss call time.
Is there an ATO rule for how long a break has to be?
The ATO doesn’t publish a minute threshold for breaks. It asks for a record of the actual hours you worked from home. Any gap threshold in an app, such as 15 minutes, is the app’s own design choice, not an ATO rule.
Does checking emails at night count as working from home?
Not on its own. PCG 2023/1 says minimal tasks, such as occasionally checking emails or taking a call, aren’t enough to count as working from home. A real stretch of work at home in the evening does count.
Sources
This is general information, not tax advice. Check your own situation with the ATO or a registered tax agent. WFH Diary is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Australian Taxation Office.