A commission-earning sales agent in Sydney can typically itemise $23,932 in deductions for 2026–27 — worth about $7,658 in tax. Take the new $1,000 standard deduction instead and the same agent gets back just $320. The gap between the two paths is $7,338, and it exists almost entirely because of one thing: the car. This guide works both paths in dollars, using the ATO’s own real estate employees guide (updated 11 May 2026), the exact 2026–27 rates, and the NSW licence fees that apply right now.
Real estate is one of the few occupations with a dedicated ATO guide, and it is unusually specific: it names the exact trips you can claim car expenses on, the exact gifts you can claim, and the exact conditions that switch whole categories of claims on or off. Most of the generic real estate tax articles online repeat a thin checklist with no figures at all — and at least one popular guide gets two things flatly wrong, telling agents they can claim home-office mortgage interest and client entertainment. They can’t. Here is every claim, what it is worth, and the traps that catch agents every year.
What real estate agents can claim in 2026–27
The ATO applies the same three golden rules to agents as to everyone else: you must have spent the money yourself and not been reimbursed, it must directly relate to earning your income, and you need a record to prove it. You can only claim the work-related portion of anything you also use privately.
For an employed real estate agent, the claims fall into nine groups:
- Car expenses — driving to open homes, inspections, appraisals and between offices, by logbook or at 91 cents a kilometre in 2026–27.
- Advertising and marketing you pay for yourself — letterbox drops, signage, bunting and newspaper ads — but only if you are entitled to earn commission.
- Client gifts — hampers, wine, flowers and gift vouchers — again, only for commission earners, and never entertainment.
- Flowers and décor for the properties you are selling, if you are entitled to commission from the sale.
- Home office — 70 cents an hour under the fixed-rate method for the hours you genuinely work from home.
- Phone, internet and tech — the work share of your mobile and home internet, plus the decline in value of your camera, laptop and other equipment.
- Licence, CPD and memberships — renewing your licence (a NSW Class 2 renewal is $435 for one year), CPD courses, and your REI membership.
- Clothing and laundry — a compulsory logo uniform and $1 per load to wash it. Plain business clothes and grooming are never deductible.
- Other — income protection premiums on a policy you hold yourself, wages you pay an assistant (commission-only agents), and tax agent fees.
One thing to get straight before anything else: whether you earn commission decides half your claim. Advertising, client gifts, flowers and assistant wages are deductible only if you are entitled to earn commission. A salaried property manager on a fixed wage cannot claim any of them, no matter how much they spend. Several popular guides list these items flatly, with no mention of the gate. That is how salaried staff end up claiming thousands they are not entitled to — and how commission agents under-claim by never realising the gate is open to them.
Car expenses: the claim that matters most
The car is where the money is for almost every agent, and it is also where the most is left on the table. Agents drive further for work than almost any other occupation — open homes on Saturday, appraisals across town, inspections between offices — and the choice of calculation method is worth thousands.
There are two methods. The cents per kilometre method pays 91 cents per business kilometre in 2026–27, capped at 5,000 kilometres per car — a maximum deduction of $4,550, with no logbook needed, just a record of how you worked out the kilometres. The logbook method lets you claim the business-use percentage of all your actual car costs — fuel, registration, insurance, servicing, repairs, depreciation and loan interest — based on a valid 12-week logbook. For a high-kilometre agent, the logbook wins by a wide margin.
| Method | How it works | Best for | 2026–27 cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cents per kilometre | 91c × business km | Under 5,000 work km a year | $4,550 (5,000 km) |
| Logbook | Business % × all car costs | Over 5,000 work km a year | No cap |
Take Sarah, a sales agent in Sydney who drives 21,000 kilometres for work in the year. Her car costs $15,950 to run: fuel $4,200, registration $950, insurance $1,800, servicing $1,400, depreciation $5,500 and loan interest $2,100. Her logbook shows 78% business use, so she claims $12,441. On cents per kilometre she would be capped at $4,550. The logbook is worth $7,891 more — before anything else in her return is counted. Any agent driving more than about 6,000 work kilometres a year should be keeping a logbook; the 12 weeks of recording pays for itself many times over.
Shifting places of work: the rule most agents miss
Here is the part almost no competitor article explains, and it is the single biggest car-claim lever in real estate. You cannot claim the cost of normal trips between home and work. But the ATO’s own example — a salesperson named Emmanuel — shows when home-to-work travel is claimable.
Emmanuel’s employer has an office, but because of the nature of his job he is not required to report there every day. He goes in only for sales meetings or when a client wants to meet him there. Each day he travels straight from home to appointments: seller meetings at coffee shops, contract signings at clients’ properties, open homes and inspections. The ATO says Emmanuel has shifting places of work, and he can claim the trip from home to his first appointment, every trip between appointments, and the drive home from his last appointment.
The test is whether the office is your fixed place of work. If you start and finish every day at the agency office, your home-to-office drive is private and not deductible. If you work like Emmanuel — appointments all day, office only for meetings — the whole day’s driving counts. That distinction is worth thousands of kilometres a year, and it is the difference between a $4,550 capped claim and a five-figure logbook claim. If your pattern matches Emmanuel’s, keep a logbook and a diary of your appointments; the ATO example is your authority.
Mia, a commission-only agent on the Gold Coast, is the textbook case. She drives 24,000 kilometres in the year, her logbook shows 88% business use, and her car costs $18,600 to run. Her logbook claim is $16,368 — against a $4,550 cap on cents per kilometre, a difference of $11,818. Because she has shifting places of work, her home-to-first-appointment kilometres are in the logbook. An agent with the same kilometres but a fixed office base would lose the home-to-office legs entirely.
Car traps
- Novated lease or salary-sacrificed car: you cannot claim the operating costs of a car provided under a novated lease or salary-sacrifice arrangement. The costs are already being paid pre-tax. Parking and tolls on work trips may still qualify.
- Parking at your regular workplace is not deductible, and neither are fines. Parking and tolls on work trips — driving to an open home, an appraisal, a client meeting — are deductible.
- Home to the regular office is private travel, even if you start early, work weekends or live a long way away. A laptop in the boot does not make the trip claimable; the ATO specifically says a laptop is not bulky equipment.
- Utes and vehicles designed to carry a tonne or more are not cars for these methods, so the cents-per-kilometre and logbook methods do not apply; actual-cost rules apply instead.
The commission gate: claims salaried staff can’t make
Four categories of claims switch on and off with one question: are you entitled to earn commission? The ATO guide is explicit, and the line is absolute. If you earn a fixed salary with no commission entitlement, these are not deductible at all.
| Claim | Commission earner | Fixed salary, no commission |
|---|---|---|
| Advertising (letterbox drops, signage, bunting, newspaper ads) | Yes, if you pay for it yourself | No |
| Client gifts (hampers, wine, whisky, vouchers, perfume, flowers, pen set) | Yes | No |
| Flowers and décor for a property you are selling | Yes, if entitled to commission on the sale | No |
| Wages paid to an assistant | Yes, if commission-only, at a market rate | No |
Sarah pays $3,850 a year on letterbox drops, signage and bunting for her listings, $1,240 on client gifts and $860 on flowers and styling for open homes — $5,950 of claims that exist only because her pay includes commission. James, a salaried property manager in Brisbane, spends nothing on these because his agency pays for marketing — and even if he did pay, he could not claim a cent of it. His agency’s marketing budget is not his deduction.
Two finer points on gifts. First, the gift must not be entertainment: a bottle of wine or a hamper is deductible, but tickets to a live sporting event are not, even for a commission earner. Second, the ATO’s own example on the other side of the line is a golf club membership: an agent who pays $930 a year and meets potential clients at his golf club still cannot claim it. Recreational club fees are private, however useful for networking.
Assistant wages are the most overlooked item in the gate. If you earn commission only and you pay someone to help you — a casual who runs your open homes while you are at an appraisal, for example — their wages are deductible where the arrangement is genuine and helps you earn more. Mia pays a casual $4,800 a year to run Saturday open homes. That is $4,800 of deductions, and it only exists because she is commission-only.
Home office: 70 cents an hour, and one popular error
If you do genuine work from home — prospecting calls in the evening, contracts and paperwork after open homes, admin on a Sunday — you can claim home office running costs. The simplest way is the fixed-rate method: 70 cents per hour for every hour you work from home, covering energy, phone, internet and stationery. Sarah works 520 hours from home in the year, so she claims $364. James works 260 hours, claiming $182. Keep a record of your actual hours; a diary or calendar is enough.
The alternative is the actual-cost method, apportioning your real bills by floor area and hours. It can pay more if you have a large dedicated office and high bills, but it needs proper records and the fixed rate is usually the better deal for agents, whose home-office hours are irregular.
Now the error to avoid. One popular guide tells agents they can claim a portion of their mortgage interest, rent and insurance as home-office occupancy costs. For an employee, that is wrong. Occupancy costs — rent, mortgage interest, rates and insurance — are deductible only in very limited circumstances, essentially where a home is used as a place of business with no alternative workplace. An employed agent with an agency office cannot claim them. If a guide tells you otherwise, it is wrong, and the ATO will disallow it.
Phone, internet and tech
Your phone is your office in real estate, and the ATO lets you claim the work-related share. Work out the percentage from a four-week representative period of itemised bills, then apply it for the year. Sarah’s plan costs $1,320 a year and her diary shows 85% work use, so she claims $1,122. James is at 60% of a $960 plan, claiming $576. If your claim for phone, data and internet is $50 or less, the ATO accepts a reasonable calculation with basic records — but an agent’s phone claim will be well above $50, so keep the bills.
Equipment follows the $300 rule. Items costing $300 or less that are mainly for work can be claimed in full in the year you buy them. More expensive items are claimed over their effective life. Sarah’s camera cost $1,499 and she uses it for property photos; with a three-year effective life that is about $500 a year, and at 90% work use she claims $450. A laptop is typically written off over four years. Software subscriptions — CRM, e-signing, design tools — are deductible in the year you pay for them, to the extent of work use.
Licence, CPD and memberships
Renewing your licence or certificate is deductible. Getting it for the first time is not, and neither is the police check you needed to get the job. The distinction matters because the fees are not small.
In NSW, renewing a Class 2 licence for one year costs $435 ($426 if lodged online), and a Class 1 renewal is $616 ($589 online), per the NSW Fair Trading fee schedule. A certificate of registration — what assistant agents and many property managers hold — costs $351 for four years when first issued, and it is not renewable except in exceptional circumstances for stock and station certificates. So a licensed sales agent has a yearly renewal claim and a certificate holder does not. James holds a certificate of registration, so his return has no licence-renewal line at all; instead he claims his annual CPD course at $280. Sarah renews her Class 2 licence at $435 and claims a $320 CPD course on top.
CPD itself is deductible when it maintains or improves the skills you use in your current job — the annual CPD hours your licence requires, a negotiation or auction course, a conference directly related to selling or managing property. A course that qualifies you for a different job, or a first qualification, is not. Your REI membership is deductible; Sarah’s is $660 a year. Union fees, if you pay them, are deductible too.
Clothing, laundry and grooming
You can claim the cost of buying, hiring, mending or cleaning clothing that is unique and distinctive to your job — a compulsory uniform with your agency’s logo, for example. You cannot claim plain clothing worn at work, even if your employer tells you to wear it and even if you only wear it for work. A black suit, black pants and a white shirt are conventional clothing, not a uniform, and the ATO says so explicitly in the real estate guide.
Laundry follows the same line. The ATO accepts $1 per load for washing eligible work clothing only, and 50 cents per load for mixed loads. No receipts are needed if your total laundry claim is $150 or less, but you must be able to show how you worked it out. James washes two loads of logo polos a week for 48 weeks: $96, plus $240 for the polos themselves.
Grooming is never deductible, however much the job demands it. Hairdressing, cosmetics, hair and skin care products are personal expenses even if your employer expects you to be well groomed and even if you receive a grooming allowance. The allowance itself is assessable income; the grooming is not deductible. The same applies to prescription glasses and contact lenses — personal, even if you need them at work. Anti-glare or protective glasses worn to reduce the risk of illness or injury while working are the exception.
What you can’t claim
- Home to your regular office — private travel, even on weekends or early starts.
- Ordinary meals — lunch during a normal working day, and client dinners, are private. Meals are deductible only on overnight work travel.
- Client entertainment — dinners, drinks and sporting-event tickets for clients are not deductible, even for commission earners.
- Grooming and plain clothes — haircuts, cosmetics, suits and business shirts, however work-necessary they feel.
- Golf club and social memberships — the ATO’s $930 example is a flat no.
- Your first licence, first certificate and police check — the cost of getting into the job, not of doing it.
- Novated-lease car running costs — already paid pre-tax.
- Occupancy costs — mortgage interest, rent and rates for a home office, for employees.
- Fines — parking and speeding fines are never deductible.
- Reimbursed expenses — if the agency paid for it, you cannot claim it.
Worked example 1: Sarah, commission sales agent, Sydney
Sarah is a sales agent in Sydney. Her income for 2026–27 is $128,000: a $58,000 base plus $70,000 in commission (Placed’s 2026 salary guide puts a NSW sales agent at $50,000–$70,000 base plus 20–50% of settled-sale commission, so she is right in the middle of the range). Her marginal rate is 30% plus the 2% Medicare levy, so every $1,000 of deductions saves her $320.
| Deduction | Amount |
|---|---|
| Car — logbook, 78% of $15,950 | $12,441 |
| Advertising (letterbox drops, signage, bunting) | $3,850 |
| Client gifts (hampers, wine, vouchers) | $1,240 |
| Flowers and décor for open homes | $860 |
| Phone — 85% of $1,320 | $1,122 |
| Home office — 70c × 520 hours | $364 |
| Licence renewal — NSW Class 2, 1 year | $435 |
| CPD course | $320 |
| Camera decline in value — 90% of $500 | $450 |
| Income protection (policy held by Sarah) | $1,650 |
| REI membership | $660 |
| Software and stationery (CRM, e-signing, design) | $540 |
| Total itemised work-related deductions | $23,932 |
At 32%, Sarah’s itemised deductions save her $7,658 in tax. The $1,000 standard deduction would save her $320. Itemising wins by $7,338. Her tax agent fee of $420 is claimed separately on top, whichever path she takes. The car alone is worth more than 23 times the standard deduction.
Worked example 2: James, salaried property manager, Brisbane
James is a salaried property manager in Brisbane on $74,000 a year — above the Real Estate Industry Award Level 3 rate of $1,231 a week, with overtime and allowances on top. He earns no commission, so the commission gate is shut: no advertising, no client gifts, no flowers, no assistant wages. His marginal rate is also 30% plus 2% Medicare.
| Deduction | Amount |
|---|---|
| Car — cents per km, 4,200 km × 91c | $3,822 |
| Phone — 60% of $960 | $576 |
| Uniform and laundry — logo polos $240 + 96 loads × $1 | $336 |
| Home office — 70c × 260 hours | $182 |
| CPD course | $280 |
| Income protection (policy held by James) | $890 |
| Total itemised work-related deductions | $6,086 |
At 32%, James’s itemised deductions save him $1,948. The $1,000 standard deduction would save him $320. Itemising still wins by $1,628 — but the margin is far narrower than Sarah’s, and it rests almost entirely on the car. Two things to note. First, James has no licence-renewal line: he holds a certificate of registration, which is a four-year certificate that is not renewed annually. Second, if James drove under 5,000 kilometres and claimed cents per kilometre, he would not need a logbook at all — 4,200 kilometres at 91 cents is $3,822 with a simple diary of his trips.
The comparison between the two profiles is the point of the whole guide. Same industry, same tax year, same 32% rate — but Sarah’s claim is nearly four times James’s, because commission entitlement and high kilometres switch on the big-ticket items. If you are salaried, do not copy a commission agent’s return, and do not copy the $1,000 standard deduction without checking your own numbers first.
The $1,000 standard deduction: should you take it?
From 2026–27, you can claim a flat $1,000 standard deduction for work-related expenses instead of itemising them. The old $300 substantiation exception is gone; the standard deduction replaces it. It is designed for people whose genuine claims are small, and it removes the need to keep receipts for work expenses if you take it.
| Your situation | Best path |
|---|---|
| Itemised claims well above $1,000 (Sarah: $23,932) | Itemise — wins by $7,338 |
| Itemised claims moderately above $1,000 (James: $6,086) | Itemise — wins by $1,628 |
| Itemised claims under $1,000 (part-time, low kilometres, no commission claims) | Take the $1,000 standard deduction |
| You did not keep receipts | Take the $1,000 — itemising without records is not an option |
One thing the standard deduction does not replace: your tax agent fee. That is claimed separately and can be added on top of the $1,000, whichever path you choose. And the choice is yours each year — taking the standard deduction this year does not lock you in for next year. Work out both numbers before you lodge; for most full-time agents, itemising wins by a wide margin, but a part-time agent with a short commute and no commission claims will often be better off with the $1,000. Run your own figures through the income tax calculator to see what your deductions are worth at your marginal rate, and check the full tax deductions checklist so nothing else is missed.
Common mistakes real estate agents make
- Claiming the home-to-office drive. Ordinary travel between home and your regular workplace is private, even on Saturdays and even if you start at 7am. The only way home-to-first-appointment kilometres count is the shifting-places-of-work rule — and that needs a genuine no-fixed-base pattern, not a wish.
- Claiming client entertainment. Dinners, drinks and sporting-event tickets for clients are not deductible. A bottle of wine as a gift is; tickets to the game are not. The distinction is the ATO’s, not a matter of opinion.
- Claiming gifts and advertising on a fixed salary. If you are not entitled to earn commission, these claims do not exist for you. The ATO guide states the condition in plain language, and it is one of the first things checked in an occupation-targeted review.
- Claiming home-office occupancy costs. Mortgage interest, rent and rates are not deductible for an employee with an agency office, however many hours you work from home. Claim the 70 cents an hour instead.
- Using the wrong year’s car rate. The cents-per-kilometre rate for 2026–27 is 91 cents, up from 88 cents in 2025–26. Using last year’s rate understates your claim by $150 on 5,000 kilometres — and using the new rate on last year’s return overstates it.
- Claiming the first licence. The initial licence grant and your first certificate of registration are the cost of getting into the job. Only renewals are deductible, and certificate holders do not get an annual renewal at all.
- Forgetting the logbook. Agents who drive 15,000–25,000 kilometres for work and claim cents per kilometre are leaving $7,000–$11,000 of deductions on the table every year. Twelve weeks with a logbook is the highest-paid admin an agent will ever do.
Records: what to keep and for how long
Keep every receipt, invoice and bank statement for work expenses for five years from the date you lodge. Once your total work-related claims pass $300, written evidence is needed for every claim — the old $300 exception no longer shelters you in 2026–27. The relaxed thresholds that remain are narrow: laundry claims of $150 or less need no receipts (but you must record how you worked the amount out), and phone claims of $50 or less need only a reasonable basis.
The practical system that works for agents is the ATO app’s myDeductions tool: photograph every receipt on the day, log your kilometres as you drive them, and keep a four-week diary once a year for your phone percentage. Logbook users need a valid 12-week logbook, kept for five years, plus odometer readings at the start and end of the year. If you are audited, the ATO will ask for the logbook and the diary before it asks for anything else.
Frequently asked questions
Can I claim my car if I drive to open homes and appraisals?
Yes. Driving from your office to an open home, an inspection or an appraisal is deductible, as is driving between separate workplaces on the same day. What you cannot claim is the ordinary trip between home and your regular office — unless you have shifting places of work, in which case home-to-first-appointment travel counts too.
Can a salaried property manager claim client gifts?
No. Client gifts, advertising, flowers and assistant wages are deductible only if you are entitled to earn commission. A salaried property manager on a fixed wage cannot claim them, even if they pay for them personally.
Can I claim my suit?
No. Conventional clothing — suits, black pants, white shirts — is not deductible, even if your employer requires it and even if you only wear it for work. Only clothing that is unique and distinctive to your job, such as a compulsory logo uniform, is deductible.
Can I claim home office costs if I also work from the agency office?
Yes, for the hours you genuinely work from home. The fixed-rate method pays 70 cents an hour and covers energy, phone, internet and stationery. You cannot claim occupancy costs such as mortgage interest or rent as an employee.
Logbook or cents per kilometre?
Cents per kilometre if you drive under 5,000 work kilometres a year: it pays up to $4,550 with no logbook. Logbook if you drive more: at 15,000–25,000 work kilometres, the logbook is typically worth $7,000–$11,000 more than the capped cents-per-kilometre claim.
Does the $1,000 standard deduction replace everything?
It replaces your work-related expense deductions, not your whole return. Your tax agent fee is claimed separately and can be added on top. If your itemised work expenses are above $1,000 — as they are for most full-time agents — itemising saves more.
Real estate agents have one of the most generous deduction profiles of any occupation in Australia, but only if they play by the ATO’s rules rather than the myths. The car is the claim that matters, the commission gate is the rule that decides half the return, and the logbook is the document that turns a $4,550 capped claim into a five-figure one. Work out both paths — itemised and the $1,000 standard deduction — before you lodge, keep the logbook and the diary, and do not claim the things the guide says you cannot. The ATO wrote a guide specifically for your job. Use it.
Figures in the worked examples are illustrative, based on the ATO’s real estate employees guide, NSW Fair Trading fees and 2026–27 rates. Your own claim depends on your actual spending and records. This article is general information, not tax advice.
