The ATO has recently released guidelines on claiming telephone and internet expenses. These are summarised below.
- There are some rates set out for incidental use and using these rates if taxpayers claims are under $50 they do not need to analyse their bills.
- If bills are itemised with all calls you need to determine a percentage over a 4 week period which can then be applied to the full year.
- If the bills are not itemised it you need to keep a record of all their calls over a four week period and then calculate your claim using a reasonable basis.
- If you have a phone and internet bundled plan you need to identify the work use for each service over a four week period to determine a pattern of work use which can be applied for the full year.
