The FIFO Tax Deduction Checklist for Your 2026 Return

Tax time hits different when you're on a two-and-one roster and you've spent half the year in a donga. Between the swing changes, the site inductions and the general fatigue of FIFO life, sorting out what you can and can't claim on your return usually ends up getting rushed or ignored altogether. That's how workers end up either underclaiming hundreds of dollars they're entitled to, or overclaiming and landing on the ATO's radar for a please explain letter.

This isn't generic tax advice. It's a rundown of what actually applies to someone flying out of Perth, Brisbane or Karratha to a camp job, based on what the ATO has published and what tends to trip people up. Get a registered tax agent who understands FIFO before you lodge, but use this as your starting checklist so you're not walking into that conversation blind.

The travel deduction most FIFO workers get wrong

Here's the one that catches people out every year: if your employer flies you from a designated muster point (say, Perth Domestic) to site, and that's a standard part of your employment arrangement, you generally can't claim that flight. The ATO treats this as your employer providing transport as part of the job, not you incurring a work expense.

Where it changes is the travel you do to get yourself to that muster point in the first place. If you live in Bunbury and drive to Perth Airport to catch the company charter, that leg is often deductible, provided you're not being reimbursed for it and it's not just your regular commute dressed up differently. Keep your fuel receipts, log the kilometres, or use the cents per kilometre method (88 cents per km for the 2025-26 year) up to 5,000 km if you're using your own car and not keeping a full logbook.

If you drive interstate or a significant distance to reach a muster point because your home isn't near one, that's a stronger claim. But if you've chosen to live somewhere inconvenient purely for lifestyle reasons and that adds cost, the ATO can and does push back on the "reasonableness" of the claim. Document why the travel was necessary, not just that it happened.

PPE, tools and site gear

This is one of the more straightforward categories, but people still leave money on the table because they don't keep receipts or they assume the company ute and tool crib means they've got nothing to claim.

• Steel caps, hi-vis, hard hats, safety glasses and gloves you purchased yourself (not supplied or reimbursed by your employer) are deductible in full if under $300, or depreciated if the total tool/equipment cost is higher.
• Prescription safety glasses are claimable, standard prescription glasses aren't, unless they double as your only safety eyewear on site.
• Tools you buy for the job, from a $45 pair of pliers to a $600 impact driver, are deductible. Items under $300 can be claimed outright in the year you bought them. Anything over that gets depreciated over its effective life, which your tax agent can calculate using ATO depreciation schedules.
• Laundering your own PPE at home is claimable too. The ATO allows a reasonable estimate, generally around $1 per load if it's just work clothing, or 50 cents per load if mixed with other washing, without needing receipts for amounts under $150 total across the year.

Where people go wrong is claiming items the company already supplies. If your employer issues you hi-vis and boots as part of your onboarding, buying your own "because you prefer a different brand" isn't automatically deductible unless there's a genuine work-related reason, like a fit or comfort issue documented with your health and safety team.

Phone and internet, but only the work-related slice

Everyone uses their phone on site, whether it's checking the roster app, texting the crew about swing changes, or calling the missus from the wet mess after knock-off. The ATO doesn't let you claim the whole bill, only the percentage that's genuinely work-related.

A common and defensible approach is to keep a diary for a representative four-week period, tracking how much of your phone and data use is work versus personal. If you land on 30 percent work use, and your monthly bill is $89, that's roughly $26.70 a month, or around $320 for the year, that you can claim. Don't just pick a round number like 50 percent because it sounds fair. The ATO wants a reasonable basis, and a four-week log is the easiest way to have one ready if you're ever asked.

If you're required to use your own device for site communications, rosters, timesheets or safety apps, and there's no salary sacrifice or reimbursement arrangement in place, that strengthens your claim considerably. Keep the app names and screenshots if you can.

Meals on rostered days: what's actually claimable

This is where a lot of confusion sits. If your employer provides meals in camp as part of your roster (which is standard on most FIFO jobs), you can't claim anything for those meals. The ATO's logic is simple: you haven't incurred the expense, the company has.

Where it gets more nuanced is overtime meal allowances. If you work additional hours beyond your rostered shift and your employer pays you a specific overtime meal allowance under an award or enterprise agreement, and it's shown separately on your payment summary, you can claim the cost of that meal if you actually bought one, without needing to keep every single receipt (though it's smart to keep a few as backup). For 2025-26, the ATO's reasonable amount for overtime meals sits around $37.65, but you can only claim up to what you actually spent, and only if the allowance was paid and included in your income.

If you're not receiving a specific meal allowance and you're just buying snacks from the local shop on your R&R days at home, that's private expenditure. No different to anyone else buying lunch on a day off.

Self-education, tickets and certifications

This is one of the most underclaimed categories in the industry, mainly because people don't realise how broad it can be.

• Renewing existing tickets (forklift, dogman, rigger, confined space, working at heights) is generally deductible if the ticket directly relates to your current job.
• Gaining a brand new qualification that opens the door to a different role (say, moving from a general labourer into a trade ticket you don't currently hold) is more likely to be viewed as capital in nature, meaning it's not deductible, because it's seen as getting you a new job rather than improving your current one.
• Course fees, textbooks, travel to the training provider, and even accommodation if the course is run away from your usual location, can all be included.
• A Cert III or IV that directly upgrades your skills in your existing trade or role is usually fine. A White Card if you don't currently need one for your job generally isn't, because it's a prerequisite for entry rather than an improvement to existing skills.

If you're paying for a $2,400 diesel fitter upgrade course while already working as a diesel fitter's offsider doing similar tasks, that's a solid claim. If you're a process operator paying for an unrelated business diploma because you're thinking about a career change, that's not deductible, no matter how useful it might be long term.

Common mistakes that get FIFO workers flagged

The ATO uses data matching and industry benchmarking, meaning your return gets compared against typical claims for people in similar roles. A few patterns consistently trigger a closer look:

• Claiming 100 percent work use on a phone or vehicle. Almost nobody genuinely uses a personal device or car entirely for work, and claiming full use looks like a guess rather than a calculation.
• Claiming flights or travel that your employer already paid for or reimbursed. If it's on your payment summary as a fringe benefit or covered by the company, you can't double dip.
• Round number claims. $300 for tools, $1,000 for laundry, $500 for phone use, with no diary, logbook or receipts behind them. These are exactly the figures that stand out as estimates rather than records.
• Claiming meals when accommodation and food were provided in camp. This one comes up constantly and it's an easy one for the ATO to check against your roster and employment conditions.
• Forgetting to include allowances as income while still claiming the matching deduction. If your overtime meal allowance shows up on your income statement, you need to declare it, then claim the deduction against it, not just claim the deduction in isolation.

The general rule that holds up every year: if you can't show why you spent the money on work, and you can't show you weren't reimbursed for it, don't claim it. It's not worth the letter from the ATO six months down the track.

Keep a simple system running year round rather than scrambling every June. A folder in your phone for receipts, a four week phone use log every six months, and a note of your travel to muster points each swing will save you hours at tax time and give your accountant something solid to work with instead of guesswork. FIFO life is unpredictable enough without adding tax season stress on top of it. Get the basics right, keep your records, and claim what you're actually owed, no more, no less.