Tax Deductions for Performing Artists (2025–26)

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

Actors, dancers, singers, musicians and other performers have a wide range of possible deductions: coaching, agent fees, costumes and even theatre tickets in some cases. This guide covers performers paid as employees; ABN income has business rules too.

This guide covers 2025–26 tax returns (lodged from July 2026) and flags what changes in 2026–27. It follows the ATO's Performing artists – income and work-related deductions guide, rewritten in plain language with practical examples.

What you can claim

Performance costs

• Agent fees and commissions (not upfront joining fees).
• Coaching classes for singing, acting, dancing or role-specific skills that relate to your current work.
• Costumes, stage makeup, and hairstyles a role requires.
• Tinted contact lenses or special frames needed for a role.
• Recordings or multimedia used to rehearse.
• Maintaining an existing photo portfolio or showreel (not creating the first one).
• Researching a role, including theatre or film tickets directly related to your current work.
• Instruments and equipment (work-use portion; $300 rule applies).
• Fitness costs only in limited cases where your role requires a level of fitness well above normal.

Car expenses between workplaces

Driving between two workplaces, from your usual workplace to an alternative site, or to a client or supplier during the day is claimable. Normal trips between home and work are private, even if you live far away or work early or late. Use the cents per km method (88c per km for 2025–26, up to 5,000 km; 91c for 2026–27) or a logbook. See our car expenses guide.

Overnight work travel

If you have to travel and sleep away from home for work, you can claim accommodation, meals and incidentals you paid for and weren't reimbursed for. If you get a travel allowance, include it as income unless it's left off your income statement and you don't claim the expenses. Keep receipts, and a travel diary for trips of 6 or more nights in a row.

Phone, internet and devices

Claim the work-related percentage of your mobile phone, data and home internet. Work it out from a 4-week representative period of your itemised bills, and keep those bills. Devices over $300 are depreciated.

Union and professional fees

Union fees and subscriptions to professional or trade associations related to your work are claimable. These don't reduce the 2026–27 standard deduction, so you can claim them on top of it.

What you can't claim

• Audition costs.
• Gifts to cast or crew.
• General streaming services.
• Conventional black clothing for performances.
• Creating your first portfolio or showreel.

Worked example

Example (illustrative figures only – not real client data): Ava is an actor employed on a theatre production. She pays agent commission, singing lessons for her role, stage makeup and tickets to research a comparable production.

2026–27 comparison: $3,350 of these expenses are the kind that reduce the new standard deduction. Because that is more than $1,000, claiming the actual expenses (with records) would give a bigger deduction than the standard deduction. The $380 of union or professional fees can be claimed either way.

Checklist before you lodge

• Keep agent statements and a note of how each lesson or ticket links to a current role.
• 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.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Claiming audition expenses.
• Claiming general entertainment as research.

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.

When to see an accountant

Talk to a registered tax agent if:

• you're paid as both an employee and a contractor;
• your income varies a lot between years (special professional averaging may apply);
• 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.

Related guides

• Media professionals
• Professional sportspeople
• all occupation and industry guides

ATO sources for this guide

• ATO: Performing artists – income and work-related deductions
• ATO: Cents per kilometre method
• ATO: Trips you can and can't claim
• ATO: Overnight travel expenses
• ATO: TD 2025/4 reasonable amounts (2025-26)
• ATO: Mobile phone, mobile internet and other devices
• ATO: Phone and internet expenses
• ATO: Union fees and subscriptions
• ATO: Professional memberships and accreditations
• 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.