FocusOn - Clothing expenses

A tax deduction is available for the cost of buying, renting, replacing or maintaining clothing, uniforms and footwear (collectively called ‘clothing'). The clothing must be used in connection with earning taxable income, must not be conventional clothing, and must satisfy at least one of the following criteria:

	It must be protective in nature
	It is a non-compulsory uniform or wardrobe that has been entered on the Register of Approved Occupational Clothing
	It is a compulsory uniform which satisfies certain requirements
	It is occupation specific and not conventional in nature

A tax deduction may also be claimed for normal clothing in limited situations owing to ‘exceptional use due to the working environment’. Exceptional use requires clothing use to be over and above a reasonable amount.

Cleaning expenses such as dry-cleaning and laundry costs can also be claimed if the clothing falls within the above categories.

Protective clothing

Protective clothing is defined as clothes that are used wholly or principally to protect the wearer or another person from:

	death or disease
	risk of injury
	risk of damage to other clothing or medical appliances worn by the wearer

The following types of clothing are examples of deductible protective clothing:

	Safety glasses, hard hats, protective gloves, overalls, white medical coats
	Non-slip shoes
	Steel-capped boots (please note non-steel capped boots are not deductible)

Although some forms of heavy duty clothing such as jeans, drill trousers and drill shirts may have a protective function at work, they are considered conventional clothing as they are widely worn in the community. These forms of clothing do not have a distinct occupational character and are therefore not deductible.

Conventional footwear such as running shoes, sports shoes and casual shoes are generally not deductible. There are limited situations where shoes may be deductible depending on the requirements of the employment.

Claims for sunhats, sunscreen and sunglasses
Products relating to sun protection may be claimed as a deduction. In order to claim these expenses, there must be a direct connection between your employment and a requirement to be in the sun. The expense also needs to be apportioned between private and work-related use.

Non-compulsory uniform

A deduction is only allowable for the purchase and maintenance costs of non compulsory uniform items if the clothing design has been entered onto the Register of Approved Occupational Clothing with the Australian Taxation Office.

Compulsory uniform

A corporate uniform or wardrobe is defined as a collection of inter-related items of clothing and accessories that are unique and distinctive to a particular organisation. This means that by wearing your employer's uniform, you are identified as belonging to that organisation, for example bank employees.

Taxpayers may be able to claim for a single item of clothing where it is:

	compulsory
	distinctive
	not available to be worn by the general public, i.e. it has a logo

An employee who is required to wear a uniform with no identifying logos cannot claim a deduction for uniform expenses. However, where the uniform is distinctive and visibly carries the organisation’s label the deduction is available.

Occupational specific clothing

Occupational specific clothing distinctly identifies the employee as belonging to a particular profession, trade, vocation, occupation or calling. Examples include barristers' capes, chefs' checked pants and religious clerics' ceremonial robes. They are not conventional clothing because they cannot be described as ordinary clothing of a type usually worn by people regardless of their occupation.

The following items do not qualify as occupational specific clothing:

	Waiters' black pants/skirt and white shirt
	Clothes worn by employees of retail stores which require employees to wear corporate colours or clothing sold by that employer
	Single coloured uniforms which bear no corporate logos worn by chemist assistants and receptionists and others working in medical surgeries

Laundry expenses

Taxpayers entitled to claim for the cost of their clothing can also deduct up to $150 for their laundry expenses without obtaining written evidence. Receipts are required for all dry cleaning expenses even though the claim is less than $150.

The laundry deduction must be a ‘reasonable estimate’. The Tax Office considers a reasonable basis for working out a laundry claim to be $1 per load if all the clothing included in that load is deductible, or 50 cents per load if the clothing is washed along with non-deductible clothing.

Published : 6 July 2007