Tasmanian workers have been warned to get their work-related car expenses claims right at tax time or else.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"We are still concerned that some taxpayers aren't getting the message that over-claiming will be detected and, if it is deliberate, penalties will apply," Australian Taxation Office assistant commissioner Karen Foat said.
"While some people do make legitimate mistakes, we are concerned that many people are deliberately making dodgy claims in order to get a bigger refund.
"We see taxpayers claiming for things like private trips, trips they didn't make and car expenses their employer paid for or reimbursed them for."
Ms Foat said more than 3.6 million people nationally made a work-related car expense claim in 2017-18, totalling more than $7.2 billion.
Figures based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics' census in 2016 estimated 153,939 Tasmanians travelled to work by car, as either drivers or passengers.
Ms Foat said driving between home and work did not warrant a deduction.
"You must have a work-related need to travel while performing your job, like travelling from site to site, or be required to transport bulky tools," she said.
The ATO said the three "golden rules" of car expense claims were:
- Trips between home and work could not generally be claimed, unless people were required to transport bulky equipment;
- not double dipping by claiming car expenses paid for or reimbursed by an employer; and
- keeping records to show how the claim amount was determined.
The ATO said its "sophisticated data analytics" found a range of unsupported claims in 2018.
In one case, a retail worker was found to have incorrectly claimed $350 for the cost of public transport to and from work.
The claim was flagged after the analytics showed taxpayers with similar occupations and salaries in similar locations had not claimed car expenses.
