No Receipts? No Problem - How to get the most out of your tax return without receipts.

We uncover what deductions you are allowed to claim without the need to receipts.

Tax time has come around once again and it leaves most of us in shambles about how to go about preparing and lodging our tax returns. If you, like many others, are not organised enough throughout the financial year to track all your work-related spending and receipts, there is no need to worry as we will uncover what you can claim without the need for those loose pieces of paper.

Before we get too deep into things, lets remind ourselves of the eligibility criteria to be able to claim an expense:

• The expense must directly relate to performing your duties at work

• The expense must be paid out-of-pocket

• The expense must not have been reimbursed or paid by your employer or someone else

It is important to note that you may not need to keep physical receipts to be able to claim deductions. If you satisfy the conditions above and have other means of showing how the expense was paid, such as bank statements, this will nullify the need to keep physical receipts.

1. The $300 Rule

The ATO allows you to claim up to $300 of work-related expenses without receipts. To clarify, this is TOTAL work-related expenses, not $300 for each individual item. As soon as your total work-related expenses tip over the $300 mark you must be able to provide receipts or substantiation for ALL expenses claimed - even the ones that make up the first $300.

Now while if you claim $300 or under the ATO will not ask for any receipts, you will still have to be able to explain what you had spent the amount on, how you paid for it, and how it relates to your work. This is to stop people who had $0 of work-related expenses from claiming the maximum limit without receipts.

2. Motor Vehicle

If you use your personal vehicle for work-purposes then you are eligible to claim running costs of the vehicle as a deduction.

There are many rules and restrictions around what type of motor vehicle travel is deductible and different methods for claiming expenses which is out of the scope of this post.

One of the methods for claiming motor vehicle deductions is the "cents-per-kilometre" method. This allows you to track the number of work-related kilometres you travelled in your vehicle and claim a fixed rate of $0.78 (for the 2023 financial year) per kilometre travelled. When using this method, you are not required to keep any receipts relating to the running costs of your vehicle such as fuel, maintenance, registration, insurance etc.

What is required is proof that you actually travelled the kilometres claimed for business purposes. This may come in the form of keeping a travel logbook specifying where you travelled to and from.

This method is also limited to 5000 kilometres. The maximum deduction you can claim is therefore $3900 (5000 x $0.78).

NOTE: Any motor vehicle expenses claimed count toward your total work-related expenses. This means if your total work-related expenses exceed $300 you will have to provide receipts for any other expenses claimed.

Example: you travelled 1000km for work and claim a $780 motor vehicle deduction (1000 x $0.78). You also had minor expenses totalling $200. Your total work-related expenses are now $980. This is greater than $300 so you must have records or receipts for the $200 of minor expenses.

3. Working From Home

As working from home has become the norm for many for those working remotely or hybrid, there are simple deductions you can claim without the need for receipts.

The ATO has set out two different methods under which we can claim home office expenses, the fixed rate method and the actual cost method. For our purposes of not needing receipts we will only be focusing on the fixed rate method.

The fixed rate method allows you to claim $0.67 per hour worked from home.

Expenses covered under the fixed rate are:

• data and internet

• mobile and home phone usage

• electricity and gas

• computer consumables (e.g. printer ink)

• stationery

This means you cannot claim a seperate deduction for any of these expenses.

While you do not need any receipts, you will need the following:

• a record of all the hours you work from home for the entire year (e.g. a timesheet, roster, diary or similar document)

• evidence you paid for the expenses covered by the revised fixed rate method (for example, if you use your phone and electricity when you work from home, keep one bill for each of these expenses).

NOTE: Any home office expenses claimed count toward your total work-related expenses. This means if your total work-related expenses exceed $300 you will have to provide receipts for any other expenses claimed.

Example: you worked from home for 500 hours during the year and claim a home office deduction of $335 (500 x $0.67). You also had minor expenses totalling $200. Your total work-related expenses are now $535. This is greater than $300 so you must have records or receipts for the $200 of minor expenses.

4. Donations

If you made one or more donations of $2 or more to bucket collections conducted by an approved organisation for natural disaster victims, you can claim a deduction of up to $10 in an income year for the total of those contributions without a receipt.

Donations do not count toward your work-related expenses so it will not impact the $300 limit.

Don’t leave any money on the table

Now you know all about what you can claim without receipts to ensure you aren't leaving any money on the table.

This article is targeted at those individuals who may have had some work-related expenses and just want a quick and easy way to claim some deductions in their tax return.

If you are one who accumulates numerous work-related expenses throughout the year you more likely than not will benefit from keeping detailed records and receipts of all these purchases. You will be able to claim more and larger deductions which will further increase your tax refund.

Remember that tax laws are forever changing so please keep in mind that this article is specifically for the 2023 financial year (1st July 2022 to 30 June 2023). If you are reading this and completing a different financial year the above information may not be applicable.

At Rapid Return, we have created a DIY easy to use tax preparation software which walks you through all the possible deductions you are entitled and selects the best methods to get you the best tax outcome possible. Visit our website to learn more.