A full-time cleaner earning $62,000 can typically itemise $5,747 in work deductions for 2026–27 — worth about $1,839 in tax. Take the new $1,000 standard deduction instead and the same cleaner gets $486. The $1,353 gap between the two paths comes almost entirely from one thing: the car. This guide works both paths in dollars, using the ATO’s own cleaners guide, the exact 2026–27 rates, and the traps that get cleaner claims denied. It is written for employed cleaners. If you clean under your own ABN, your claims work differently — see our sole trader tax guide.
The three rules behind every claim in this guide are the ATO’s standard three: you spent the money yourself and were not reimbursed, the expense directly relates to earning your income, and you have a record to prove it. Fail any one of them and the claim fails, no matter how work-related the item feels.
The short answer: what cleaners can claim in 2026–27
- Car travel between jobs and work sites during the day, at 91 cents per kilometre (up to 5,000 km) or by logbook — plus home-to-work trips only in two narrow exceptions.
- Cleaning products and equipment you buy yourself — products used solely for work in full, shared products apportioned, employer-supplied products at $0.
- Protective clothing and compulsory uniforms — non-slip shoes, aprons, gloves, masks, safety glasses, logo uniforms — plus laundry at $1 per work-only load.
- Phone (work portion only), union fees, work-related training, overtime meals (only with an overtime meal allowance), and police checks required by your current employer.
- Not claimable: normal home-to-work travel, everyday clothing, your driver’s licence, fines, child care, and anything your employer supplied or reimbursed.
The car: where most of the money is — and most of the mistakes
Driving between cleaning jobs during the day is deductible. Driving from home to your regular workplace is not — even if you live a long way away or start at 5am. The ATO’s cleaners guide gives two exceptions that matter enormously for this occupation, and most generic guides either skip them or get them wrong.
Exception 1: bulky equipment. You can claim home-to-work trips if you carry bulky tools or equipment, but only if all three conditions hold: the equipment is essential to do your job, it is bulky (awkward to transport because of size and weight, and only conveniently transportable by motor vehicle), and there is no secure storage for it at the workplace. An industrial cleaner who hauls a pressure cleaner, a walk-behind floor scrubber and cleaning machinery in a trailer every day, with no depot storage, passes the test. A domestic cleaner who takes a caddy of sprays home because the client’s cupboard is full does not — that is a matter of choice, and choice kills the claim. If your employer provides a locker or depot storage and you still take gear home, the trips are private.
Exception 2: shifting places of employment. If you have no fixed workplace and continually travel from site to site — the classic agency cleaner doing five houses a day, never the same depot — you can claim the trips from home to each site. This is the exception that contradicts the blanket advice “home to your first client is never deductible”. It applies only when there genuinely is no regular workplace; a cleaner based at one hospital who occasionally covers another site does not qualify.
Other deductible trips: directly between separate jobs on the same day (for example, from a morning cleaning job to an afternoon job as a waiter, provided neither workplace is your home), to and from an alternative workplace for the same employer on the same day (depot to client’s home), and from home directly to an alternative workplace that is not your regular location (home to meet a client at their business premises).
91 cents, not 88, not 92
The 2026–27 cents-per-kilometre rate is 91 cents — a base rate of 89 cents plus a temporary 2-cent uplift for this year only, capped at 5,000 work kilometres per car ($4,550 maximum). Two competitor guides still in circulation are wrong on this: one quotes 92 cents, which has never been the rate, and another still frames its guide around last year’s 88 cents. Claiming at the wrong rate is a small error per kilometre that compounds across a year of site-hopping, and it is exactly the kind of discrepancy the ATO’s data matching picks up. Keep a diary, roster or myDeductions record showing how you worked out your kilometres — you do not need fuel receipts under this method, but you do need to show your working.
The ute trap
The cents-per-kilometre and logbook methods are legally unavailable for a motorcycle, a vehicle with a carrying capacity of one tonne or more (such as a ute), or a vehicle that can transport nine or more passengers. If you haul your gear in a ute, your only method is actual expenses: fuel, oil, insurance, loan interest and decline in value, apportioned for work use, with receipts for all of it. A logbook is not strictly required for these vehicles but is the easiest way to prove your work-use percentage. Cleaners with utes and trailers are the exact group this rule bites, and no generic deductions guide we reviewed mentions it.
Cleaning products and equipment: the sole-use rule
You can claim cleaning products you buy solely for earning your income as an employee cleaner. Two qualifications do most of the damage in practice. First, if your employer provides the products or reimburses you, the claim is $0 — this is the single most common denied cleaner claim, because most employed cleaners are supplied. Second, a product used for both work and private purposes is deductible only for the work portion. The bottle of disinfectant that also cleans your own bathroom is partly private; keep it separate, or keep a reasonable apportionment record.
Tools and equipment follow the same logic: a vacuum or steam cleaner you buy for work is deductible for its work-related use. Items costing $300 or less are deductible in full in the year you buy them (provided they are not part of a set totalling more than $300, and not identical items that together exceed $300). Items over $300 are claimed over their effective life as decline in value, apportioned for private use and for the part of the year you owned them. Repairs to work tools are deductible. Tools your employer supplies are not your claim at any price.
Clothing: the logo shirt yes, black pants no trap
Conventional clothing is never deductible, even if your employer requires it and you only wear it at work. The ATO’s own example is a school cleaner who must wear a shirt with the cleaning company’s logo, black pants and closed shoes. The logo shirt is deductible: it is distinctive and compulsory. The black pants and closed shoes are not, even though the employer mandates the colour — they are conventional clothes that anyone might wear.
What is deductible: protective clothing (items with protective features that guard against a specific work risk — cleaning aprons, non-slip shoes, smocks that stop contact with harmful substances, thick rubber gloves, face masks and goggles for construction cleaning), compulsory uniforms (strictly and consistently enforced, distinctly identifying you or your employer), and registered non-compulsory uniforms. A cotton shirt that merely feels protective is not protective clothing — the ATO’s construction-cleaner example denies the claim for ordinary cotton pants and shirt, then allows the heavy-duty abrasion-resistant trousers, gloves, mask and goggles that replaced them. The difference is specific protective features against a specific risk, not comfort or durability in general.
Laundry for deductible clothing is claimable at $1 per load if you wash only work clothes, or 50 cents per load for mixed loads. Dry-cleaning and repairs are claimed at actual cost.
Worked example: Maya, full-time cleaner on $62,000
Maya cleans offices and homes for one agency, five days a week, driving her own hatchback between sites. Her employer supplies products for office jobs but not for private-house jobs, where she buys her own. Here is her 2026–27 claim, item by item:
| Expense | Claim | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Car, between sites | $3,458 | 3,800 km × 91c |
| Cleaning products (own purchases, work-only) | $420 | Receipts, not reimbursed |
| Protective clothing | $265 | Non-slip shoes $120, gloves and apron $85, safety glasses $60 |
| Laundry | $48 | 48 work-only loads × $1 |
| Tools | $316 | Steam mop $240 (under $300, immediate) + vacuum decline in value $76 |
| Phone | $288 | $60/month plan × 12 × 40% work use (4-week diary) |
| Training | $380 | Infection control + first aid (Maya is the designated first aid person) |
| Police check | $52 | Required by her current employer |
| Union fees | $520 | Annual membership, receipt held |
| Total itemised | $5,747 |
At Maya’s 30% marginal rate plus the 2% Medicare levy, $5,747 of deductions saves $1,839 in tax. Now compare the alternative. Under the new standard deduction for 2026–27, an eligible employee automatically receives up to $1,000 for work-related expenses without spending anything or keeping records — but it is reduced by the work expenses actually claimed. Union fees sit outside the expenses the standard deduction covers, so they can be claimed on top. Maya’s standard-deduction path is therefore $1,000 + $520 = $1,520 of deductions, worth $486. Itemising beats it by $1,353. For Maya, keeping records is worth more than $100 a month.
When the $1,000 standard deduction wins
Not every cleaner should itemise. Take Daniel, a part-time school cleaner on $28,000 who works at one school, is supplied with everything, and drives nowhere for work. His genuine claims total about $840: laundry $40, a pair of non-slip shoes $120, phone portion $180, and a training course $500. The standard deduction gives him $1,000 with no records at all — $160 more than his actual expenses, plus his union fees on top if he has any. Claiming his $840 instead would cost him money and effort. The rule of thumb for 2026–27: if your real work expenses are under $1,000, take the standard deduction and stop; if they are well over it — usually because of car travel between sites — itemise and keep records.
One sting in the tail: the old $300 no-receipt exception and the $150 laundry exception are gone from 2026–27. If you choose to claim actual expenses above the standard deduction, you need written evidence for all of it. The standard deduction is now the only receipt-free path, and it is capped at $1,000. See our standard deduction guide for the full mechanics.
Overtime meals: $40 is not an automatic deduction
If you work overtime and receive an overtime meal allowance under an industrial award, you can claim what you actually spent on the meal. The ATO’s reasonable amount for 2026–27 is $40 (Taxation Determination TD 2026/4), up from $38.65 last year — another figure competitor guides still show stale. The reasonable amount matters only as a substantiation exception: if you spent $40 or less and received and declared the allowance, you generally do not need to keep the receipt, though you must still be able to show you incurred the cost. If you received no allowance, there is no exception at all — receipts for everything, and the meal itself is deductible only where the overtime-meal rules are met. A meal bought on an ordinary shift, without overtime and without an allowance, is a private expense.
Training, licences and checks: three different answers
Seminars, conferences and training courses related to your work as a cleaner are deductible, including fares to the venue and, for overnight travel, accommodation and meals. A first aid course is deductible only if you are a designated first aid person who needs the course for emergency work situations — a cleaner who did first aid voluntarily, or whose employer paid for it, cannot claim it. Self-education follows the usual rule: a course that maintains or improves skills in your current job is deductible; a course to get a different job is not.
Your driver’s licence is never deductible, even if holding it is a condition of your employment. That is a private expense, full stop. A police check or security clearance splits the other way: one required by your current employer is deductible, but one you paid for to get the job in the first place is not. Check which side of that line your receipt falls on before you claim it.
What cleaners cannot claim (the denial list)
- Normal home-to-work travel — private, even for long distances and early starts, unless the bulky-equipment or shifting-workplaces exception applies.
- Conventional clothing and footwear — jeans, t-shirts, black pants, ordinary closed shoes, even when mandated.
- Child care — including before/after-school care while you work. Private, with no connection to earning income in the ATO’s view.
- Driver’s licence costs, and fines and penalties of any kind, including parking and speeding fines incurred at work.
- Anything supplied or reimbursed by your employer — products, equipment, clothing, training.
- Meals on ordinary shifts, gym or fitness costs, and products bought for personal use.
- Gifts, donations and tax agent fees are separate categories, not work expenses — donations to deductible gift recipients and the cost of managing your tax affairs are claimed elsewhere in the return, and our full deductions checklist covers them.
Records: what to keep, and for how long
Keep receipts, invoices and bank statements for five years from when you lodge. The ATO app’s myDeductions tool works well for cleaners because the claims are many and small: photograph each receipt at the time, log your between-site kilometres weekly rather than reconstructing them in June, and run a four-week phone diary once a year to fix your work-use percentage. For laundry, a simple count of work-only loads is enough. For a logbook-method car claim, you need a valid 12-week logbook plus odometer records and written evidence of all car expenses. For the cents-per-kilometre method, a diary of trips and how you totalled them is enough — but “5,000 km because everyone claims 5,000” is a red flag the ATO has publicly warned about, with hundreds of thousands of returns adjusted last year.
One practical habit beats all the others: keep work products and home products physically separate. A dedicated work caddy with its own receipts removes the apportionment argument entirely, and it is the difference between claiming your $420 of products in full and arguing about a percentage.
FAQ
Can I claim driving from home to my first cleaning job?
Only in two cases: you carry bulky equipment that meets all three conditions (essential, bulky, no secure storage at work), or you have shifting places of employment with no fixed workplace. Otherwise the trip is private, even if the first job is an hour away.
I drive a ute full of gear. Can I use 91 cents per kilometre?
No. Vehicles with a carrying capacity of one tonne or more cannot use the cents-per-kilometre or logbook methods. Claim your actual expenses — fuel, insurance, loan interest, decline in value — apportioned for work use, with receipts.
My employer gives me gloves and spray. Can I still claim them?
No. Anything your employer supplies or reimburses is not your deduction. Claim only what you buy yourself for work, and only the work portion of anything shared with home use.
Do I still need receipts if my claims are under $1,000?
Not if you take the standard deduction — it is automatic up to $1,000 with no records. But if you claim actual expenses instead, the old $300 no-receipt exception no longer exists in 2026–27, so keep receipts for everything you claim.
Can I claim my black work pants if my boss says I must wear them?
No. Mandated colour does not make conventional clothing deductible. Only protective items, compulsory logo uniforms and registered uniforms qualify — the pants stay private even though the rule is real.
I clean under my own ABN as well as working employed shifts. Which rules apply?
Both, separately. Your employed shifts follow this guide; your ABN work follows business deduction rules, with different treatment for vehicles, equipment and home costs. Keep the two sets of records apart, and see our sole trader guide for the ABN side.
Cleaners’ claims are small individually and large in total — Maya’s $5,747 is a car claim plus a dozen small ones, and the car claim only survives if the trips genuinely qualify. Work out which of the two home-to-work exceptions, if either, covers you, keep your work products separate from your home products, and compare your itemised total with the $1,000 standard deduction before you lodge. If you are unsure, run your numbers through our income tax calculator first — and check the 2026–27 tax rates to see exactly what each dollar of deductions is worth at your income.
