We’re here to make sure you maximise your tax refund. The size of your tax return essentially comes down to your deductions. The more deductions you can claim, the higher your return. So the team at One Click have worked hard to make sure that we can optimise those deductions.
When it comes down to it, there are three main criteria that qualifies an expense for tax deduction, which is calculated against your income:
- You must have spent the money
- It must be related to your job
- You must have a record to prove it
However, this in itself can be hard to understand. What constitutes an expense as “related” to your job? Here is what defines your taxable income, and a list of expenses that you as a customer service worker can deduct on your next online tax return.
Remember, a record isn’t necessarily a receipt. There are tax deductions you can claim without a receipt. Read on to find out more.
What Is Your Taxable Income
Your taxable income is money generated from your employer or your work. Your taxable income also includes:
- PAYG summaries
- Pensions and government allowances
- Interest earned (banks etc)
- Dividends
- Rental property income
- Business income
- Other income earned (capital gains etc)
Tax Deductible Expenses For Customer Service Workers
- Purchasing of compulsory uniforms with your company logo
- Laundry for your compulsory uniforms
- Working from home using the fixed or actual cost methods
- Self-education and courses for customer service
- Fees from joining a union/other similar organisations
- Subscriptions and magazines that relate to your work
- Travel expenses if work related and you have paid for them (conferences, customer meetings etc). These can include meals, accommodation, fares and incidentals.
- Work related driving in some circumstances using the cents per km method of claiming a tax deduction (most popular for Customer Service workers).
| TAX DEDUCTIBLE CAR KMS | |
| ✅ Driving directly separate jobs on the same day | ✅ Driving to and from an alternate workplace for the same employer |
| ✅ Driving to visit customers | ✅ The kms claim you will need to maintain a logbook. |
| ❌ NOT TAX DEDUCTIBLE: | ❌ You can’t claim the kms for driving to and from work |
Buying Your Work Uniform
As a customer service worker or retail worker, one of your tax deductions can be your work uniform. The uniform must have the workplace logo on it that brands the clothing item to the business which you work for and you must have bought it yourself.
For example, if your uniform is a blank white t-shirt, that cannot be tax deductible. But, if you work for McDonalds, and have to wear the branded hat, shirt & pants or Bunnings & have to wear a bright red & green shirt with a big BUNNINGS logo on it OR if your uniform is to wear a giant rat costume because you work for a pet store, which you have had to buy yourself, that is all tax deductible.
Are You Using Your Mobile Phone to Call Customers?
If you are using your mobile phone to call customers for work, you can claim your phone bill as a tax deduction. Let’s say you have a $100 a month phone bill, and 36% of your mobile phone usage is for customer calls, you can claim $36 a month as a tax deductible expense.
General Customer Service Worker Tax Deductions
- Car expenses and general wear (estimated Km or a logbook with all expense items)
- Travel expenses for your work (flights, taxis and trains etc)
- Accommodation needed on work reasons (including meals)
- Phone bills for work
- Work related computing
- Working from home costs
- Self-education
- Tax return fees dating to the year previous
- Insurances
- Rental expense (if you are renting)
- Charity donations and gifts
- Sun protection (if you have to work outside)
Maximising Your Tax Return With An Online Tax Service
There will be more you can deduct that isn’t on this list. Tax deductions are not only industry specific, but also change from individual to individual.
The best way to claim the most you can is with a tax agent like One Click Life. We have made the process simple with 5 easy steps.
The more you deduct, the less tax you pay and the more money you can spend on yourself. Clearly, you will want to deduct the most you can, and the sure-fire way to do that is with a tax agent or accountant. If you can claim your tax agent/tax return fee back on tax, why wouldn’t you use one to minimise your tax?
One Click Life offers fast online tax returns at your fingertips in an easy-to-use platform run by industry professionals.
Taxes, health insurance, and wills can be time-consuming and tedious. Our app allows you to be able to do this fuss-free, giving you a simple way to organise, track and manage all of your life admin in one place.
Let One Click Life take care of your tax return, and life’s essential tasks so you can spend more time doing the things you love.
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