If you work in aged care in 2026-27, your tax return probably has more in it than you think — and one benefit worth more than all your deductions combined is not a deduction at all. A home care worker driving between clients can claim thousands in car expenses alone, while a residential care worker at a not-for-profit provider may be able to salary package around $15,900 of living expenses before tax. This guide works through every claim with real 2026-27 figures, the traps that cost aged care workers money every year, and a worked example you can compare against your own return.
It covers personal care workers, home care workers, community support workers and residential aged care staff. If you are a registered nurse working in aged care, most of this applies to you too, with registration fees on top — see our nurses’ deductions guide for the nursing-specific items.
The three tests every claim must pass
Before the list, the rules that decide everything. The ATO allows a work-related deduction only if all three are true:
- You paid for it yourself and were not reimbursed. If your employer supplied the gloves, paid the course fee or reimbursed the cost, there is nothing to claim.
- It directly relates to earning your income in your current job — not to getting a job, and not to something merely useful.
- You have a record. From 2026-27 the old small-claim shortcuts are gone: keep receipts and a diary even for small items. If your total work-related claims come to $1,000 or less, the new $1,000 standard deduction may be simpler — more on that below.
One more distinction that trips up aged care workers constantly: an allowance on your payslip is not a deduction. An on-call allowance, for example, is assessable income that compensates you for being available — you cannot claim a deduction for it unless you actually incur a deductible expense. The ATO’s own example for community workers makes exactly this point: Bill, an aged care worker, receives an on-call allowance but incurs no expense, so he claims nothing for it. By contrast, a uniform allowance is also income, but the uniform you buy with it is deductible.
Car travel: usually your biggest claim
For home care and community workers, car expenses are typically the largest single deduction — and the most misunderstood. The rule turns on one question: do you have a regular workplace?
| Trip | Claimable? |
|---|---|
| Home to your regular facility or office | No — private commuting |
| One client’s home to the next client’s home | Yes |
| Client’s home back to the office | Yes |
| Home directly to a client’s home, when you have no regular workplace | Yes |
| Between two separate jobs on the same day | Yes |
| Home to a training course | Yes |
| Transporting a client to an appointment as part of your duties | Yes |
That first row is where the confusion lives. Some guides say home to your first client is always claimable; others say never. The truth depends on your work pattern. A residential care worker who starts every shift at the same facility cannot claim the drive there — that is commuting, however long it is. A community worker with no fixed base, whose clients’ homes are shifting workplaces, can claim travel from home to clients. And if you start at the office and then visit clients, the office-to-client legs are claimable even though the home-to-office leg is not. If you are unsure which pattern you fit, keep a diary for a month and ask your tax agent — this single question is worth hundreds of dollars either way.
You claim car travel by one of two methods. The cents per kilometre method is simplest: 91 cents per kilometre in 2026-27, up to 5,000 work kilometres — a maximum claim of $4,550 — with no receipts needed for the car itself, just a diary of your trips. The logbook method suits you if you drive more than 5,000 work kilometres: keep a 12-week logbook and claim the work-related percentage of all running costs. Parking fees and tolls on work trips are claimable on top; parking at your regular workplace and tolls on your commute are not. Our car expenses guide works through the crossover maths between the two methods.
Worked example: a home care worker drives 4,200 kilometres between clients in the year. At 91 cents, that is 4,200 × $0.91 = $3,822. At a marginal rate of 32% (30% tax plus the 2% Medicare levy, the rate applying to incomes between $45,001 and $135,000 in 2026-27), that one claim alone is worth $3,822 × 0.32 = $1,223 back.
Uniforms, protective clothing and laundry
Three categories of clothing are deductible; everything else is not, no matter how strictly your employer enforces it:
- Compulsory uniforms that identify your employer — a polo or tunic with the provider’s logo, for example. Both the purchase cost and the laundry are claimable.
- Protective clothing with real protective features: non-slip shoes, aprons, gloves, masks and sun protection for outdoor work. The item must protect you from a genuine risk, not merely be practical.
- Occupation-specific clothing that is not everyday wear — in practice, most aged care claims sit in the first two categories.
Plain scrubs, black pants and a white shirt are conventional clothing and are not deductible, even if you bought them only for work and wear them nowhere else. This is the single most common error in aged care returns, and it survives because it feels unfair — but the ATO position is settled. Laundry follows the same boundary: you can claim $1 per load for work-only loads or 50 cents per load for mixed loads, for eligible uniforms and protective clothing only. Keep a diary of loads; from 2026-27 you need written evidence even for laundry.
Training and self-education
Training that maintains or improves the skills you need for your current job is deductible: course fees, textbooks, stationery and travel to the course. For aged care workers this commonly includes a Certificate III or IV in Individual Support, manual handling refreshers, medication administration training and dementia care courses — provided you pay for them yourself and they relate to the job you already hold.
The first aid trap deserves its own paragraph. A first aid course is deductible only if you are a designated first aid person who needs the qualification to respond to emergencies at work. A first aid course done because it is generally useful, or to help you get a job, is not deductible. The same logic applies to courses that qualify you for a new role rather than improving your current one: a course that gets you promoted into a different job is a capital-style expense in the ATO’s eyes, not a deduction.
Checks, registrations and screenings
Aged care carries more mandatory checks than most jobs, and the ATO draws a sharp line between getting the job and keeping it:
- Renewals of a check or registration you must hold for your current role are generally deductible — NDIS Worker Screening Check renewals, Working with Children Check renewals, and similar.
- The initial cost of obtaining a check before you start is generally not deductible, because it is incurred to begin earning rather than in the course of earning. The exception is a new employee who has recently worked continuously in a child-related field.
- Police checks sit in a grey area the ATO’s carer guide does not specifically cover — ask a tax agent before claiming one rather than assuming it follows the Working with Children Check rules.
Union fees are straightforwardly deductible — the United Workers Union and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation are the common ones — as are agency fees you pay yourself (not fees your employer pays). Income protection insurance premiums on a policy you hold personally are deductible; premiums paid through your super fund are not, because the fund claims them.
Phone, home office, tools and equipment
If you use your personal phone for rostering apps, calls to coordinators, progress notes and contacting clients or families, claim the work-related percentage of your bill. Work it out with a representative four-week diary and apply that percentage across the year — 40% of a $60-a-month plan, for instance, is $288 for the year. Note that you cannot claim phone and internet separately if you use the working-from-home fixed rate, because that rate already includes them.
Home office claims are modest for most aged care workers: the fixed rate of 70 cents per hour covers running costs for genuine work done from home, such as writing progress notes or doing online training between shifts — not for simply being rostered on call. Keep a diary of hours. Tools and equipment follow the $300 rule: items costing $300 or less that are used mainly for work can be claimed in full in the year you buy them; more expensive items (a laptop used for notes and training, for example) are depreciated over their effective life, claiming only the work-related portion. Tax agent fees from last year’s return are deductible this year.
What you cannot claim
- Vaccinations, including flu shots — private expenses, even if your employer requires them. At least one popular guide lists work-required vaccinations as claimable; that advice is wrong, and following it invites an ATO adjustment.
- Home-to-work travel to a regular workplace, however long the commute.
- Meals during a normal shift — private, even with a meal allowance. The exception is an overtime meal, claimable only when you receive an overtime meal allowance under an award or agreement (the reasonable amount for 2026-27 is $40) and actually buy the meal.
- Grooming, hairdressing and makeup, even if your employer requires a neat appearance.
- Meals you buy for clients, and any expense your employer reimbursed.
The bigger win: salary packaging
Here is the benefit most deduction guides never mention, and it can dwarf everything above. If your employer is a public benevolent institution or health promotion charity — as many not-for-profit aged care providers are — it can provide fringe benefits free of fringe benefits tax up to a cap of $30,000 of grossed-up value per employee per year. In practice that is roughly $15,900 of actual living expenses — rent, mortgage payments, groceries, bills — paid from your pre-tax salary, plus a separate meal entertainment cap of $5,000 grossed-up (around $2,650 of actual spending).
On a $68,000 salary, packaging the full $15,900 saves $15,900 × 32% = $5,088 a year — more than double the $1,752 our worked car claim produced, and it requires no receipts at all, just an arrangement with payroll. Two warnings. First, not every aged care employer qualifies: for-profit providers offer no such concession, and merely being a charity is not enough — the employer must be a registered public benevolent institution or health promotion charity. Second, packaged benefits create a reportable fringe benefits amount that counts toward adjusted taxable income for tests like the Medicare levy surcharge thresholds and HELP repayments, so check the interaction before maxing it out. Our fringe benefits tax guide explains the caps and the traps in full.
Worked example: Maya, home care worker on $68,000
Maya is a home care worker with no fixed base, visiting clients across her region. Her 2026-27 claims:
| Expense | Amount |
|---|---|
| Car travel between clients: 4,200 km × 91c | $3,822 |
| Logo uniform | $240 |
| Laundry: 96 work-only loads × $1 | $96 |
| Phone: 40% of $60/month × 12 | $288 |
| First aid (designated first aider) + manual handling | $330 |
| Union fees | $520 |
| PPE bought herself (gloves, masks) | $180 |
| Total itemised deductions | $5,476 |
At her 32% marginal rate, those deductions are worth $5,476 × 0.32 = $1,752. If Maya also salary packages the full $15,900 through her not-for-profit employer, she saves a further ~$5,088 — a combined benefit of around $6,840 for the year.
Now the contrast case. Tom works in a residential facility: same uniform, same phone, but no client travel and no training this year. His itemised claims total about $620. For Tom, itemising is the wrong move — the $1,000 standard deduction is worth $1,000 × 0.32 = $320, versus $620 × 0.32 = $198 itemised. The standard deduction wins by $122, with no receipts to keep. The crossover is simple: if your genuine itemised claims are under $1,000, take the standard deduction; if they are over, itemise and keep records.
Common mistakes that cost aged care workers money
- Claiming the commute. Home to a regular facility is private, full stop — distance and inconvenience do not change it.
- Claiming plain scrubs and black pants. Conventional clothing fails the test even when it is a de facto uniform.
- Treating an allowance as a deduction. On-call and shift allowances are income; only expenses you actually incur are deductible.
- Claiming vaccinations. Private, even when required — and some guides still say otherwise.
- Missing salary packaging entirely. For not-for-profit aged care staff, this is routinely worth more than every deduction combined.
- Itemising $600 of claims when the $1,000 standard deduction pays more. Compare before you lodge.
Records checklist for 2026-27
- Car diary: dates, clients visited, kilometres — or a 12-week logbook if you use that method.
- Receipts for uniforms, protective clothing, PPE, training and checks, plus a laundry diary.
- Four-week phone usage diary if you claim more than $50 of phone costs.
- Home office hours diary if you claim the fixed rate.
- Your income statement, union fee statement and any salary packaging statements from payroll.
Keep everything for five years from lodgement. Digital photos of receipts are fine as long as the supplier, amount, date and nature of the goods are readable.
Frequently asked questions
Can I claim travel from home to my first client?
It depends on whether you have a regular workplace. A community worker with no fixed base, visiting shifting client locations, generally can. A worker who starts each day at the same facility cannot claim that leg, though travel from the facility to clients is claimable.
Are non-slip shoes deductible?
Yes, when they have genuine protective features and your work requires them. Ordinary comfortable shoes are not — the protective feature is what matters, not the comfort.
Can I claim my flu vaccination if my employer requires it?
No. Vaccinations are private expenses in the ATO’s view, even when an employer requires them. Do not claim them.
Is salary packaging available to all aged care workers?
No — only employees of eligible not-for-profit employers, principally public benevolent institutions and health promotion charities, up to the $30,000 grossed-up cap. For-profit aged care staff cannot access it. Ask payroll whether your provider qualifies.
Should I take the $1,000 standard deduction or itemise?
Whichever is higher. Add up your genuine itemised claims: under $1,000, the standard deduction wins and needs no records; over $1,000, itemise with full evidence. You cannot claim both.
Can I claim a first aid course?
Only if you are a designated first aid person who needs it for emergencies at work, and your employer did not pay for it. A course taken to get a job or for general usefulness is not deductible.
The bottom line
Aged care work generates a strong deduction profile — client travel, uniforms, training and checks — but the two decisions that matter most are the ones guides skip: whether your home-to-client travel pattern actually qualifies, and whether your employer’s salary packaging concession is worth more than your entire deduction list. Work those two out first, keep a diary through the year, and compare your itemised total against the $1,000 standard deduction before you lodge. Run your final numbers through our income tax calculator to see exactly what your claims are worth at your marginal rate.
This guide is general information based on ATO guidance for 2026-27, including the ATO’s community support workers and direct carers guide. It is not personal tax advice — if your situation is complex, a registered tax agent can confirm your claims before you lodge.
