Uniform with work logo

Generally, you can claim the cost and laundry expenses for acquiring and washing compulsory or protective uniforms which have business logos attached to them.

Occupation‑specific

You can claim a deduction for occupation‑specific clothing that distinctively identifies you as a person associated with a particular occupation – for example, a police officer, judge’s robe or chef’s chequered pants.

If the clothing may be worn by multiple professions, it is not considered occupation specific.

You can’t claim for clothes you wear for work that are not specific to your occupation. For example, you can’t claim:

• a bartender’s black trousers and white shirt
• a business suit
• a swimming instructor’s swimwear.

ATO Example: occupation-specific clothing

Joe is a chef with 2 jobs. When working at a restaurant he wears the traditional chef’s uniform of chequered pants, white jacket and chef’s toque. He also works on a food truck, but just wears jeans and a t-shirt at that job.

Joe can claim his traditional chef’s uniform, but not his food truck clothing. The chef’s clothing is relevant to his profession, but the jeans and t-shirt are conventional clothes.

Protective clothing

You can claim a deduction for clothing and footwear you wear to protect you from the real and likely risk of illness or injury from your work activities or your work environment.

There has to be a link between your work-related activities, the risk presented by your work environment and the form and function of the clothing to mitigate that risk.

To be considered protective, the items must have both:

• protective features or functions
• a sufficient degree of protection against the risk of illness and injury you are exposed to in carrying out your work.

Protective clothing includes (from ATO publication):

• fire-resistant clothing
• sun protection clothing with a UPF sun protection rating
• safety-coloured vests
• non-slip nurse’s shoes
• protective boots, such as steel-capped boots or rubber boots for concreters
• gloves and heavy-duty shirts and trousers
• occupational heavy duty wet-weather gear
• boiler suits, overalls, smocks or aprons you wear to avoid damaging or soiling your ordinary clothes during your work activities.

You can’t claim a deduction for conventional clothes that don’t have features for protection against the risks of illness or injury at your work. For example, you can’t claim for jeans, drill shirts, shorts, trousers, socks or everyday enclosed shoes.

Laundry expenses

You can claim the costs for (1) home washing (2) wash in the laundromat and (3) dry and iron work clothing from one of the categories above.

A reasonable home washing rate:

• $1 per load for washing your uniform
• 50c per load if you mix personal items of clothing with work clothing from one of the categories above.

If you receive an allowance from your employer for laundry expenses:

• Your employer may include a uniform and laundry allowance on your income statement. It is an assessable income. You can claim the actual uniform and laundry expenses incurred by you.

Dry-cleaning and repair expenses

You can claim a deduction for the actual costs you incur to dry-clean and repair uniforms from one of the categories above.

Keeping records for clothing, laundry and dry-cleaning

You need to keep receipts to claim a deduction for buying, dry-cleaning or repairing work-related clothing.

Your records need to show:

• the name or business name of the supplier
• the amount you spent
• the nature of the items you paid for
• the date you made the payment
• the date the receipt or other document was produced.

If you don’t (or can’t) get a receipt, you can provide other forms of evidence for your expenses. This evidence needs to show all of the information described above. Other forms of evidence might include:

• bank statements
• invoices
• purchase orders.

If you claim a deduction for laundering (washing and drying), you must keep details of how you work out your claim.

If your laundry expenses (washing, drying and ironing but not dry-cleaning expenses) are $150 or less, you can claim the amount you incur on laundry without providing written evidence of your laundry expenses.

If your laundry claim is over $150, you must have written evidence, such as diary entries and receipts.