Tax Deductions for Tradies & Construction Workers (2025–26)

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

If you work on the tools – as a carpenter, electrician, plumber, bricklayer, labourer, painter, tiler or other construction worker – you're likely to have work expenses you can claim. This guide covers what employed tradies and construction workers can and can't claim for 2025–26. If you work for yourself with an ABN, see our sole trader guide too.

What you can claim

Tools and equipment

• Tools and equipment costing $300 or less each (and not part of a set costing more than $300) can be claimed in full in the year you buy them.
• Items costing more than $300 are depreciated over their effective life.
• Repairs, insurance and replacement of work tools, and tool batteries and consumables you pay for.
• Apportion for any private use (for example, a drill you also use at home).

Protective clothing, uniforms and laundry

• Protective items such as steel-capped boots, hi-vis vests and shirts, fire-resistant clothing, hard hats, gloves, safety glasses, earmuffs and respirators.
• Compulsory uniforms with your employer's logo.
• Washing, drying and ironing those items – the ATO accepts $1 per load for work-only loads or 50c per load if mixed with private clothes.

Sun protection

Sunscreen (TGA-listed, AUST L), sunglasses and hats if you work outdoors. See our sun protection deductions guide.

Car and travel

• Driving between sites during the day, from your normal workplace to another site, or to a supplier to pick up materials for work.
• Driving from home to work only where you carry bulky tools or equipment that your employer requires you to use, that are essential to your work, and there's no secure storage at the site.
• Use the cents per km method (88c per km for 2025–26, up to 5,000 km, rising to 91c for 2026–27) or the logbook method. See our car expenses guide.
• If you travel and stay away overnight for work, accommodation, meals and incidentals can be claimed if you paid them and weren't reimbursed.

Licences, tickets and memberships

• The cost of renewing a licence or ticket you need for your current job, such as a high-risk work licence or trade licence renewal.
• Union fees and trade association memberships.
• Courses that maintain or improve skills for your current job (for example, a refresher or a first aid course if you're a designated first aid officer).

Phone, overtime meals and other costs

• The work-related portion of your mobile phone. See our mobile phone deductions guide.
• Overtime meals, if you received an overtime meal allowance under an award or agreement (the 2025–26 reasonable amount is $38.65 per meal).

What you can't claim

• Normal travel between home and work (even early starts, or if you pick up a colleague), unless the bulky tools rule applies.
• The cost of getting your first licence or ticket, such as an initial White Card, since this is to get a job rather than to do your current one.
• Everyday clothes, such as jeans, plain shorts, t-shirts or runners, even if you only wear them to work.
• Tools or equipment your employer provides or reimburses.
• Meals eaten during a normal workday, coffee, or food at the site.
• Fines (for example, speeding or parking fines).
• Gym memberships or fitness costs, even if your work is physical.

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.
• For car claims using the logbook method, keep a logbook for a continuous 12 weeks and odometer readings; for cents per km, be able to show how you worked out your work kilometres (a diary is ideal).
• 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. Your own claim depends on your circumstances and records.

Jordan is an employed carpenter in 2025–26. During the year Jordan:

• buys a cordless drill for $249 (example figure) – under $300, used 90% for work: claim $224;
• buys a mitre saw for $900 (example figure), used only for work – over $300, so it's depreciated rather than claimed in full;
• buys steel-capped boots and hi-vis shirts for $280 (example figure): claim $280;
• washes work-only loads of hi-vis twice a week for 46 weeks: 92 loads × $1 = $92;
• drives between sites and to the supplier for 1,200 km (example figure): 1,200 × 88c = $1,056;
• pays union fees of $600 (example figure).

These items (excluding the saw's depreciation) total $2,252. If Jordan's marginal rate is 30% plus the 2% Medicare levy, that reduces tax by about $720 (example only). In 2026–27, Jordan could compare total actual claims (excluding the union fees, which don't affect the standard deduction) against the $1,000 standard deduction.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Claiming a tool set over $300 in full.
• Claiming home-to-site travel without meeting the bulky tools test.
• Claiming a first licence or white card.

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: Building and construction employees income and work related deductions
• ATO: 0 cb1de35c a468 402b 8ac4 1c469195b4e3
• ATO: Tools and equipment
• ATO: Assets costing more than $300
• ATO: 00025
• ATO: Cents per kilometre method
• ATO myTax 2026: Work-related clothing, laundry and dry-cleaning
• ATO: Records you need to keep
• ATO: Standard deduction for work-related expenses
• ATO: TD 2025/4 reasonable amounts (2025-26)
• ATO: Small business support 20000 dollar instant asset write off
• 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.