Tax Deductions for Nurses & Midwives (2025–26)

Updated for the 2025–26 income year, with 2026–27 changes noted. Reviewed 19 October 2026.

Nurses and midwives – including registered and enrolled nurses, nurse practitioners, assistants in nursing and midwives – often pay for work items out of their own pocket. Here's what you can and can't claim for 2025–26.

What you can claim

Uniforms, protective clothing and laundry

• Compulsory uniforms that identify you as working for your employer (including compulsory shoes or socks that are part of the uniform).
• Protective clothing and footwear you wear to protect yourself from injury or illness – for example, non-slip nursing shoes, gloves, masks and protective eyewear – if your employer doesn't supply them.
• Laundering those items: $1 per load for work-only loads or 50c per mixed load.

Registration, memberships and self-education

• Renewal of your registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board (through Ahpra), if you need it to keep working.
• Union and professional association fees.
• Courses, conferences and seminars that maintain or improve the skills you need for your current role, plus related travel. See our self-education guide.

Equipment

• Items such as a fob watch, stethoscope, scissors, blood pressure monitor or thermometer bought for work – claim in full if $300 or less, otherwise depreciate.
• Technical or professional publications and apps used for work.

Car, travel and meals

• Driving between two separate workplaces (for example, two hospitals) or to patients' homes, using 88c per km for 2025–26 (up to 5,000 km) or a logbook.
• Overtime meals if you received an overtime meal allowance under an award or agreement (2025–26 reasonable amount $38.65).
• Accommodation, meals and incidentals if you travel and stay away overnight for work and pay those costs yourself.

Phone

The work-related portion of your mobile phone use, such as calls to your roster coordinator. See our mobile phone guide.

What you can't claim

• Normal travel between home and work, including after a late or night shift or when on call.
• Your first registration with Ahpra, as it relates to getting a job.
• Plain clothing or footwear that isn't protective or part of a compulsory uniform (for example, black trousers or general runners).
• Grooming, hairdressing or fitness costs.
• Vaccinations, even if your employer requires them.
• Parking or tolls at your regular workplace (unless you're travelling for work).
• Childcare costs, even if they let you work shifts.
• Anything your employer reimburses.

Record keeping

• You must have spent the money yourself and not been reimbursed, the expense must be directly related to earning your income, and you need a record to prove it.
• Keep receipts, invoices or bank statements for 5 years from when you lodge. The ATO app's myDeductions tool or photos of receipts are fine.
• If you use something for both work and private purposes, you can only claim the work-related portion – keep a diary or other evidence of how you worked that out.
• 2025–26: if your total work-related claims are $300 or less you don't need written evidence (but must be able to show how you worked the amount out), and laundry claims up to $150 can be made without written evidence using the ATO rates.
• From 2026–27: those $300 and $150 exceptions are removed. A new standard deduction of up to $1,000 applies automatically for eligible employees; if your actual work-related expenses are higher, you can claim them instead with records.

Worked example

All figures below are example figures only, for a hypothetical person.

Priya is an employed registered nurse in 2025–26 who:

• renews her registration for $190 (example figure);
• pays union fees of $700 (example figure);
• buys non-slip nursing shoes for $160 and a fob watch for $35 (example figures);
• washes her compulsory uniform in work-only loads 3 times a week for 46 weeks: 138 × $1 = $138;
• drives between two hospitals on split shifts for 600 km (example figure): 600 × 88c = $528;
• claims 20% work use of her $60-a-month phone plan (example figure): $720 × 20% = $144.

Total example claim: $1,895. At a 30% marginal rate plus 2% Medicare levy, that's about $606 less tax (example only).

Common mistakes to avoid

• Claiming travel home after night shifts.
• Claiming your first registration.
• Claiming vaccinations or plain black shoes.

Checklist before you lodge

• Check your income statement in myGov is marked 'tax ready' and every allowance is included.
• Remove any expense your employer paid for or reimbursed.
• Apportion anything used privately and keep a note of how you worked out the percentage.

When to see an accountant

Talk to a registered tax agent if:

• you're unsure whether an expense is private or work-related, or your claims are much higher than last year;
• you have an ABN, side business or rental property as well as your job;
• you have received an ATO letter, review or amended assessment.

ATO sources for this guide

• ATO: Nurses and midwives income and work related deductions
• ATO myTax 2026: Work-related clothing, laundry and dry-cleaning
• ATO: Cents per kilometre method
• ATO: Self-education expenses
• ATO: TD 2025/4 reasonable amounts (2025-26)
• ATO: Phone and internet expenses
• ATO: Records you need to keep
• ATO: Standard deduction for work-related expenses
• ATO: Copyright notice

This guide is written in our own words. It draws on information published by the Australian Taxation Office, and some short phrases are quoted with attribution. Source material: © Australian Taxation Office for the Commonwealth of Australia. Top Accountants is not endorsed by, or affiliated with, the ATO.