Tax Advice For Teachers

Taxes are a complicated system of rules and regulations that can be difficult to navigate. This blog post is going to provide some helpful tips on how teachers can make the tax process easier.

How many people do you know who have been able to file their own taxes? What about those people who have had an accountant prepare their taxes for them? The truth is, most people don't want to do it themselves because they're scared they'll miss something important or won't understand what's happening.

So why not hire someone else with knowledge and experience in this field? They could help you save money by finding deductions and credits that you might otherwise never would've found out about on your own. It's not too late!

Teachers may not be the most financially literate people, and as such, can find themselves in a difficult position when it comes to tax time. The following blog post will provide some valuable advice on how to get started with your taxes and what you should know about getting them done.

Teachers’ Tax Deductions Can Really Boost Your Tax Refund

Like many professionals, teachers often pay for work-related expenses out of their own pockets. In most cases, these items can become valuable tax deductions for teachers. As a teacher, the tax deductions you claim back can significantly improve your tax refund – if you know what you’re doing. You just need to adopt a few good habits – we cover some of those below. But let’s start with the top 14 teacher tax deductions:

• Teaching supplies: teaching resources or materials that were not paid for or reimbursed by your school
• Teaching registration fees and related costs
• Working with children/Blue card applications
• Uniforms (or clothing with the company/school logo on it), including laundry costs
• Self-education that relates to your current teaching role
• Some travel and meal expenses
• Any relevant overnight stay costs
• Relevant car expenses
• Union or membership fees
• Home internet bill (for the times you may work from home on marking, etc.)
• Cost of relevant memberships
• Work-related books, magazines and journals
• Tax-deductible phone expenses
• Protective hat and sunscreen used when working outside

Some Teachers Can Claim Tax Deductions For Working At Home

Most teachers need to take work home at some stage, but there is a silver lining to that. If you do some of your work at home, there’s an opportunity to claim a deduction for it. Depending on how often you work at home, you may be able to claim the work percentage costs of:

• your internet expenses
• computers, printers and any other equipment you use
• depreciation of the value of the above items (ask Etax or another tax agent to help with this!)

The ATO’s “cents per hour method” is best to claim tax deductions for work-at-home expenses. Etax.com.au or another tax agent can quickly calculate the work-related portion of these expenses and help you to claim these expenses correctly.

You can only claim these expenses if you always work from home. Therefore, teachers who mostly work out of schools and other educational facilities are not eligible. Teachers should be very careful about this, the ATO has made clear rulings about this and now watch out for teachers who attempt to over-claim.

Travel And School Excursions: Common Tax Deductions For Teachers

Travel and other costs for day trips or school excursions are often a common expense for teachers. So, make sure you keep a record of all of them. This includes costs such as meals, transport and accommodation – unless paid for or reimbursed by the school. It’s worth noting that you can’t claim travel to and from work or any social functions the school may host.

Other Teacher Tax Deductions

You may also be able to claim a deduction for some personal items if you use them for work. For example, a portion of your mobile phone expenses and the costs of work-related personal car use can be claimed.

Track Your Teaching Expenses And Save Your Receipts = More Tax Deductions For Teachers!

Stay on top of your record-keeping year-round. Keep it simple and keep your records organised. If you don’t keep your receipts, items that you could have claimed as teacher tax deductions will likely be missed.

And if you don’t have a receipt to prove a teaching-related expense, don’t claim the expense. That might sound a bit harsh, but the solution is easy: Put all of your work-related receipts in a folder for your tax agent at the end of the financial year.

Another way to save tax receipts is with your smartphone. Using a simple mobile app like the one from Etax Accountants, you can snap your receipts year-round and save them directly into your next tax return. Later, at tax time, your tax return will be easy to finish online, and an Etax accountant will check the details before your tax return is lodged with the ATO. So easy to do, you’ll never miss another cash-saving tax deduction.

Tax Tips For Teachers

Tax time is here again. Ask any teacher, and they will tell you that plenty of teaching-related expenses throughout the year come out of their own pockets. But which of those costs are tax-deductible?

Information contained in this article is of a general nature only and should not be construed as providing tax, legal, financial or accounting advice on any of the topics discussed. Please consult with your financial and/or tax advisor(s) before making any decisions.

To help determine what you can and can’t claim as a teacher, we’ve spoken to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) about what those working in the education sector can claim versus what is considered a private expense.

There are three things that you need to consider when claiming a work-related expense:

• Have you spent the money yourself and weren't reimbursed?
• Is the expense directly related to earning your income?
• Do you have a record to prove the expense (usually a receipt)?

If you answer “yes” to all these questions, the expense is likely a deductible work-related expense.

Keep in mind that if the expense was for both work and private purposes, you can only claim a deduction for the work-related portion.

If you work in the education sector, here are some of the expenses you may be able to claim:

Teaching Aids

Whether it’s handouts for students, videos and audiotapes to support your lesson plans, musical instruments or sports equipment, the cost of paying for teaching supplies can add up. The good news is that purchases related directly to your job are generally deductible if they are used for your work as a teacher.

However, you can’t claim a deduction for the cost of items you have supplied to students for their own personal use, gifts purchased for students, or meeting students’ personal expenses (for example, paying for your students’ lunch).

Home Office

As we all know, teachers spend a great amount of time working from home, marking exams and designing lesson plans. If you spend time working from home, you may be able to claim a deduction for the additional running costs that you incur.

For example, if you work in your lounge room when others are also present, you can't claim lighting and heating or cooling costs. This is because there is no additional cost for those expenses as a result of working from home.

There are several methods you can use to work out your home office expenses. The methods you can use depend on your circumstances. You must meet the record-keeping requirements and working criteria to use each method.

The ATO’s website has a great case study that compares the three methods and highlights the differing record keeping requirements.

Temporary Shortcut Method

The shortcut method simplifies how you calculate your deduction for working from home expenses. Using this method, you can claim 80 cents per hour for each hour you work from home.

The rate is all-inclusive and covers all your working from home expenses, such as phone & internet expenses and a decline in the value of equipment and furniture and electricity. If you use this method, you can’t claim any other expenses for working from home.

This method is temporary and can only be used to work out your work from home expenses between 1 March 2020 to 30 June 2020 (2019-20 income year) and for the whole of the 2020-21 income year.

Clothing And Laundry

With a few exceptions, clothing is a private expense. Conventional clothing (including footwear) can’t be deducted as a work-related expense, even if your employer requires you to wear it and you only wear these items of clothing at work. For example, while a physical education teacher may wear sports clothes such as tracksuits, shorts and aerobic shoes to work, these items are not deductible.

You can claim a deduction for costs you incur to buy, hire, repair or replace clothing, uniforms and footwear you wear at work if it’s:

• protective clothing you wear to protect yourself from specific risks of injury or illness at work. For example, protective eyewear, gloves and hard hats worn by a design and technology teacher.
• A compulsory uniform which must be sufficiently distinctive to your particular organisation so that a casual observer can clearly identify you as working for a particular employer or identify the products or services provided by your employer. To be considered compulsory, you must be expressly required to wear it by a workplace agreement or policy, which is strictly and consistently enforced
• a non-compulsory uniform you wear to work that is listed on the Register of Approved Occupational Clothing with AusIndustry (check with your employer if you’re not sure).

You can't claim a deduction if your employer buys, repairs or replaces your clothing.

Car Expenses

Trips between home and work aren’t deductible, even if you live a long way from your usual workplace or have to work outside normal business hours (for example, weekend or early morning shifts). These are students private expenses.

You can claim a deduction for the cost of using a car you own, lease or hire (under a hire-purchase arrangement) when you drive:

• between separate jobs on the same day – for example, travelling from your job as a primary school teacher to a second job as a tutor.
• to and from an alternate workplace for the same employer on the same day – for example, transporting students to school excursions.

While the initial cost of obtaining your teaching registration is not tax-deductible, you can claim the cost of renewing it.

General Expenses

Some other expenses you might be able to claim to include: union fees, professional memberships and subscriptions, and work-related books, magazines and journals. Donations to registered charities may also be able to be claimed, as long as you haven’t received anything in return for your donation, such as raffle tickets or novelty items.

You might also be able to claim bank fees charged on investment accounts, as well the cost of income protection insurance and any fees paid to your tax agent for preparing your annual return.

When it comes to preparing your tax return, it pays to know what items are tax-deductible. To help ease the stress of tax time, have a chat with your tax agent or visit the ATO’s website if you need more clarity around what is deductible. Always keep a thorough record of your paperwork to help make submitting your tax return a seamless process.

Tax Deductions for Teachers

Tax returns in Australia can vary greatly depending on your occupation, and there are a number of deductions and advantages that are specifically relevant to teachers and people working in education. These can have a significant benefit on your final return, so it's worth checking all the details – but don't worry if you don't have time to comb through the paperwork.

We've put together this helpful outline of tax deductions for teachers, and our team of expert tax agents is always here to answer any questions and help you finalise your tax return.

Teacher Specific Expenses You Can Claim As Deductions

Self-education expenses if your course or conference relates directly to your current job – e.g. a course in working with children with special needs.

Running costs of your home office if you have to work from home, including depreciation of office equipment, work-related phone calls and internet access charges, and electricity for heating, cooling and lighting costs.

Equipment purchased specifically for your work, such as computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones and printers and it costs more than $300, you can claim a deduction for this cost spread over a number of years (depreciation).

Expenses for your car when you:

• Drive between separate jobs on the same day – e.g. travelling from your job as a teacher to a second job as a musician
• Drive to and from an alternate workplace for the same employer on the same day – e.g. driving from your school to another school to moderate exam results.

There are limited circumstances where you can claim the cost of trips between home and work, such as where you carry bulky tools or equipment for work – e.g. a set of sporting equipment needed for a carnival. However, the cost of these trips is deductible only if:

• Your employer requires you to transport the equipment for work.
• The equipment was essential to earning your income.
• There was no secure area to store the equipment at the work location, and
• The equipment is bulky – at least 20kg or cumbersome to transport.

If you claim car expenses, you need to keep a logbook to determine the work-related percentage or demonstrate to the ATO a reasonable calculation if you use the cents per kilometre method to claim.

As long as the expense relates to your employment, you can also claim a deduction for the work-related portion of the cost of:

• Phone and internet usage
• Excursions, school trips and camps
• First aid courses
• Seminars and conferences
• Protective equipment such as sunglasses, sunhats and
• Teaching aids
• Technical or professional publications
• Union and professional association fees.

Teacher Specific Expenses You Can't Claim As Deductions

• Self-education, if your study is only related in a general way or is designed to help you get a new job, e.g. you can't claim the cost of study to enable you to move from being a teacher's aid to being a teacher.
• Home office expenses related to the cost of rates, mortgage interest, rent and insurance
• The cost of car trips between home and work, even if you live a long way from your usual workplace or have to work outside normal business hours – e.g. parent-teacher interviews.
• Gifts you purchased for students.
• Meeting students' personal expenses – for example, paying for lunch, excursions or school books.

Keep Detailed Records

Our advice is the same whether you're a first-year teacher or have been in the job for a while. It's important to employ detailed knowledge of the tax system so you know what you can and can't claim at tax time.

It's important to do the groundwork before tax time and keep a record of your outgoings. As a general rule, if you're not reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses related to work, you can claim it.

Retain all of your receipts and invoices, bank and credit card statements, as well as a journal of the number of kilometres you travelled for work this year, when and where you went and why it's work-related, so you can go through them with our tax experts.

Tax Tips For Teachers 2021 – What You Can And Can’t Claim For

Over the last 12 months, schools have continued to switch in and out of remote learning in response to COVID-19, with educators working from home. So as teachers and school leaders in Australia begin to prepare their 2020-21 tax returns, here’s our annual Q&A with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) about what to keep in mind when calculating your expenses this year and examples of what you can and can’t claim for.

This year has been another mix of remote and face-to-face teaching. At the time of publishing this article, Victoria is in another lockdown, and, apart for certain students, schools have again switched to a period of remote learning. So what tax claim options are there for educators working from home?

There are three methods to calculate your working from home expenses. The method you use will depend on your circumstances (you must meet the recording keeping requirements and criteria to use each method). The methods available for Tax Time 2021 are:

• Temporary shortcut method – an all-inclusive rate of 80 cents per work hour
• Fixed-rate method – 52 cents per work hour which covers additional running expenses such as (electricity and gas for heating, cooling, lighting, cleaning and the depreciation of your home office furniture). You need to separately work out your phone and internet, computer consumables, stationery and depreciation on your computer, phone and any other devices you use for work.
• Actual cost method – the actual work-related portion of all your running expenses, which you incurred as a result of working from home.

Are There Any Eligibility Requirements Teachers Have To Meet To Claim Working From Home Expenses?

As you can see from the above answer, you can use three different methods to calculate your working from home expenses. If you’re using the ATO temporary shortcut method to calculate your deduction, you don’t need a dedicated home office.

You can use the temporary shortcut method to calculate your deduction if you:

• were working from home to fulfil your employment duties and not just carrying out minimal tasks such as occasionally checking emails or taking calls
• incurred additional running expenses as a result of working from home.

To use the fixed-rate method, you need to have a dedicated work area, such as a home office, when you work from home. You need to keep the required records for the method you use as well.

Teachers can claim the cost of seminars, conferences and training courses that relate to their work. However, due to travel restrictions, lots of professional learning has gone online-only – how has this affected what teachers can and can’t claim?

You can claim the cost of seminars, conferences, and training courses related to your work as a teacher or education professional.

If you completed the seminar, conference or training from your home, you can claim the hours spent doing this under the working from home methods noted above. Make sure you keep a record of the number of hours spent completing the training!

You can only claim travel expenses if you were required to travel for the work-related course. The costs you can claim includes fares to attend the venue where the seminar, conference or training course is held and registration costs.

If you need to travel and stay away from home overnight to attend such an event, you can also claim the cost of accommodation and meals. But, remember, you can’t claim a deduction if your employer pays for or reimburses you for these expenses.

Lots of teachers spend time outdoors with students (meeting and greeting in the morning, playground duties, etc.). Can they claim for sunglasses, hats and other protective items such as sunscreen?

You can claim a deduction for the work-related use of sunglasses, sunhats and sunscreen lotions if you:

• work in the sun for extended periods
• use these items to protect you from the real and likely risk of illness or injury while at work.

For example, if you're the school sporting coach for track and field events, in addition to your teaching duties. This includes prescription sunglasses and anti-glare glasses.

You can only claim a deduction for the work-related use of the products; so, if you also wear them for private purposes, you will need to apportion your expenses.

So, we've mentioned some things already. What are some of the most common mistakes teachers and educational professionals make when lodging their tax return?

Don’t fall into the trap of making these mistakes this tax time:

• For example, you can’t claim the cost of gifts you buy for your students or any time you pay for their personal expenses (e.g. their lunch, excursion fees or school books).
• You can’t claim a deduction for self-education and study expenses if your study is only related in a general way to your job or is designed to help you get a new one.
• With a few exceptions, clothing is a private expense. You can't claim conventional clothing (including footwear) as a work-related expense, even if your employer requires you to wear it and you only wear these items of clothing at work. 'Conventional clothing' is everyday clothing worn by people regardless of their occupation – for example, business attire worn by teachers.
• Claiming a standard $300 deduction or $150 for clothing and laundry expenses. There is no such thing as an ’automatic’ or ‘standard deduction’. There are limited circumstances where receipts may not be required. You still need to calculate your claim on a reasonable basis, have spent the money and show the expense was related to earning your income. Don’t claim a standard $300 deduction if you haven’t spent the money and can’t explain what you spent the money on. Like conventional clothing, expenses incurred for laundering these clothes is private and is not deductible.

Before claiming any work-related expense, make sure it meets the three golden rules:

• You must have spent the money yourself (and you weren’t reimbursed);
• The expense must directly relate to earning your income;
• You must have a record to prove it (usually a receipt).

You need to keep records for your claims. If you feel like you’re always scrambling to find your receipts when tax time rolls around, do yourself a favour, and track your expenses using the myDeductions tool in the ATO app. Just snap a photo, add a couple of details, and your record-keeping is complete! Avoid the last-minute struggle and download the ATO app today.

The ATO compares your deductions to others in your industry earning similar income. Therefore, if your claim is unusually high, you may receive a notification when lodging your return that your deductions are higher than those in a similar circumstance. We will then ask you to review your claims to make sure you have reported them correctly.

And, What About The Common Things That Teachers Are Eligible To Claim For, That Are Often Missed?

Teachers are often generous people – gifts and donations can be claimed if it is given to an endorsed deductible gift recipient (DGR). A DGR is an organisation or fund that can receive tax-deductible gifts and is registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). Not all charities or causes, such as crowdfunding campaigns to help needy individuals, are registered DGRs.

You can claim a deduction when you drive between alternate workplaces for the same employer on the same day (e.g. from your school to another school to supervise an exam).

You can claim a deduction for costs incurred when taking students on excursions, camps, educational and sporting trips if these trips have an educational benefit related to the curriculum or extracurricular activities of the school.