Working holiday makers claim work related deductions on the same terms as anyone else in Australia. Uniforms and protective clothing, tools, travel between work sites, the work share of a phone bill and tax agent fees are all deductible.
What makes an expense deductible at all?
An expense is deductible when you paid for it yourself, it directly relates to earning your income, and you were not reimbursed for it. The third is the one people forget: if the farm handed you the gloves, the gloves are not yours to claim.
The fourth condition is evidence. Without a receipt, a bank line or a diary note, a genuine expense is still not claimable, so the year you can substantiate is usually smaller than the year you actually spent.
What work clothing can you claim?
Clothing is deductible when it is protective, compulsory and distinctive, or a genuine uniform. Ordinary clothing you happen to wear to work is not. This is where working holiday makers most often overclaim, because hospitality dress codes feel compulsory.
Deductible:
- Uniforms carrying a logo or a distinctive employer design
- Protective clothing such as steel capped boots, hi vis and sun protection for outdoor work
- Safety gear including gloves, hard hats and goggles
- Laundry and dry cleaning of the above
Not deductible:
- Plain black trousers and white shirts for hospitality, even where the venue insists
- Conventional business clothing
- Anything you would wear off shift
What tools and equipment can you claim?
Tools you buy yourself are deductible, and the size of the purchase decides whether you claim at once or over several years. Knife rolls, chef whites, work boots, trade tools and contracting equipment all qualify where the employer did not supply them.
Items costing $300 or less each are claimed in full in the year you buy them. Larger items are written off over their effective life, and from 1 July 2026 the immediate write off threshold rises to $1,000 for eligible items, which is covered in our guide to the $1,000 instant deduction.
Which travel can you claim, and which is private?
Travel between two different workplaces on the same day is deductible. Travel between home and your regular workplace is private, however long it is and however early the shift starts.
- Deductible: driving from a morning cafe shift to an afternoon catering job
- Deductible: travel to training or a work meeting away from your usual site
- Not deductible: the daily trip from the hostel to the same packing shed
One narrow exception: bulky equipment that cannot be secured at the workplace. It is genuine, and claimed far more often than it applies.
How much of your phone bill counts?
The work related share of your phone, internet and devices is claimable, but the percentage has to be justified rather than picked. A representative record of work versus private use across the year supports it; a figure that feels about right does not.
A phone used for rosters, shift swaps and contact with a labour hire agency supports a modest percentage easily. A high percentage on a phone that is also the only way you speak to family at home does not, and it invites questions on an otherwise clean return.
What do working holiday makers claim most often?
The pattern follows the work rather than the visa. Almost everyone has a defensible phone percentage, and the tax agent fee itself is deductible in the following year.
- Sunscreen, sunglasses and a sun hat for outdoor work
- Work boots and hi vis for farm and construction work
- Knife rolls and chef uniforms for kitchen work
- The work share of a phone plan
- Tax agent fees
- Self education directly related to the work you are already doing
What is never deductible, whatever the circumstances?
Some costs feel work related and are not, and they account for most rejected claims. The visa lets you be in the country rather than earning your income, so neither the application fee nor the flight is deductible.
- Visa application fees and travel to Australia
- Meals, unless you were travelling away from home overnight for work
- Anything your employer reimbursed
- Home to work travel
- Everyday clothing
What decides the size of your deduction claim?
Three things, and only one of them is what you spent. Your line of work, because the same $400 of boots and gloves is ordinary for a construction labourer and unusual for a receptionist. What you can substantiate. And whether the expense was yours or the employer's.
A limited concession lets you claim up to $300 of work related expenses in total without receipts. It is not a free $300. You still have to have spent the money and be able to explain the figure, and once your total claim passes $300 the concession falls away for the whole claim, not just the excess.
Where does this stop being a list and start being a judgement?
It stops being a list when the same expense could sit in two places, which is where most of the value is won or lost. A vehicle used for two jobs, a laptop used for contracting and for booking flights, a phone running a delivery app and a group chat: each is a percentage rather than a yes or no, and no article can make that judgement about your year.
The other judgement is which employer the expenses attach to. A year with four employers, one under an ABN, produces deductions belonging in different parts of the return, and putting them in the wrong place is the most common reason a self lodged return is amended later. That analysis is part of preparing your tax return, alongside the residency and Medicare items that usually move more money.