What the 70c Covers, and What You Can Claim on Top

What does the 70c fixed rate cover?

The 70c rate covers energy (electricity and gas), phone (mobile and home), internet, and stationery and computer consumables. When you use the fixed rate method, those costs are in the hourly rate and you can’t claim them again (ATO fixed rate method page).

The rate is 70c for every hour worked from home in 2026–27 (PCG 2023/1, para 26A). How it works overall is in the 70c fixed rate method explained.

Can you claim your phone and internet on top of the 70c?

No. Phone and internet are two of the four costs the 70c covers, so claiming a share of those bills as well would be claiming them twice (ATO).

This is the most common mistake with the fixed rate method, partly because the old 52c fixed rate method, used up to 30 June 2022, let you claim phone and internet separately. The current method doesn’t. If you want to claim the work share of your phone and internet bills directly, you need to use the actual cost method for your running costs instead, with the records it asks for. The guide to fixed rate vs actual cost helps you decide whether that’s worth it.

The same goes for electricity and gas, and for stationery. Buying printer ink for work doesn’t give you a separate deduction under the fixed rate; it’s part of what the 70c pays for.

What can you claim on top of the 70c?

You can claim the decline in value of equipment and furniture you use for work, and repairs to them. These are separate from the running costs the rate covers (ATO).

• Equipment: a computer or laptop, a monitor, a printer, a keyboard or headset.
• Furniture: a desk, an office chair, shelving you use for work.
• Repairs: fixing that equipment or furniture.

In every case you claim only the work-use share. If you use your laptop for work 60% of the time and personally 40% of the time, you claim 60% of its decline in value. You’ll want a reasonable basis for that percentage, such as how many of the hours you use it are work hours.

Any other item you want to claim on top should be checked against the ATO’s working from home expenses page first. If it isn’t equipment, furniture or a repair, it may be one of the running costs the 70c already covers.

How do you claim equipment that cost $300 or less?

An item that costs $300 or less can generally be claimed in full in the year you buy it, rather than over several years. It has to meet the tests on the ATO’s assets costing $300 or less page.

In short, you use it mainly for your work as an employee (not for a business), and it isn’t part of a set, or a group of identical or substantially identical items bought in the same year, that together cost more than $300. You still claim only the work-use share. A $200 headset you use for work calls 80% of the time gives an immediate deduction of $160.

How do you claim equipment that cost more than $300?

You claim its decline in value over its effective life, a portion each year, rather than the whole cost when you buy it. Again, only the work-use share counts (ATO).

If you buy the item part way through the year, you claim decline in value only for the part of the year you owned it. Keep the receipt and a note of how you worked out your work-use share. A $1,500 laptop, for example, is spread over several years, not claimed in one go. If the way you use an item changes, your work-use share changes too, so note it each year.

What records do you need for the 70c and the extras?

For the 70c you need a record of the actual hours you worked from home for the whole year, kept at the time, plus at least one bill for each running cost the rate covers and a receipt for stationery (PCG 2023/1, paras 56–62). For equipment you need the receipt and your work-use basis.

It can seem odd to keep bills for costs you don’t claim separately, but the bill shows you actually incur the running costs the 70c stands in for. WFH Diary has a bills to keep checklist for the four running-cost types and lets you attach each bill to the year, next to your hours. For what counts, see bills to keep for the fixed rate method and what records the ATO accepts for WFH hours. Keep all of it for 5 years from the date you lodge (ATO).

Does claiming extras change the $1,000 standard deduction maths?

Yes. Equipment depreciation and repairs are itemised work expenses, so they add to your fixed rate claim when you compare it with the $1,000 standard deduction that starts in 2026–27 (ATO).

In effect you get the higher of $1,000 or your itemised work expenses. A hybrid worker at home 3 days a week logs about 1,094 hours, which is $766 at 70c. On its own that’s below $1,000. With a new desk and chair, or a laptop’s decline in value, on top, the itemised total may pass it. You need records for the full amount to claim above $1,000. The $1,000 standard deduction vs the WFH fixed rate guide and the deduction calculator show where you land.

What’s not a work from home expense at all?

Costs you’d have whether or not you worked from home, and costs your employer pays you back for, aren’t work from home expenses. Only additional running costs that you pay yourself count (ATO).

If your employer reimburses a cost, you can’t claim it. See employer reimbursements and the WFH deduction. For the whole picture of what you can claim, start with the work from home tax deductions guide.