You ponder how the figure could possibly be correct, mulling over where you ought to have claimed, grim in the knowing that there were likely many blind spots in your assessment. 

Knowledge is power, as they say, which is why we sat down with Mark Chapman, Director of Tax Communications at H&R Block, to unpack exactly how educators can get the most out of their tax return this year. 

SD: Hi Mark, so tell us: what are some of the biggest mistakes you see educators making at tax time?

MC: Claim what you’re entitled to…

You’re entitled to claim a deduction for any expense which you incurred in earning your income. So, if you have incurred a work-related expense, and you have the paperwork to prove it, don’t hesitate to claim it. 

A good tax accountant will be able to tell you exactly what you can and can’t claim, minimising the chances of an audit at a later date but consider claiming these:

Self-education

Claim for conference, seminars and other training courses provided they have been incurred to help you in your current job (and not to get a new one!)

As well as the cost of the conference or course itself, that can also include travel, meals and accommodation costs – even where the conference or course is overseas, though you might need to apportion the costs (and disallow the private bit) if you spent some downtime on the beach afterwards!

Professional subscriptions

Claim for professional subscriptions, whether to a professional body or to a trade union. The costs of journals, periodicals and magazines that have a content considered to be aligned with teaching are also deductible.

Travel and meals 

You can’t usually claim the cost of the daily commute to and from work. The only exception to that rule is if you have to carry bulky equipment to and from work because there is no secure place of storage for them at your workplace. 

You can claim the cost of travelling between two workplaces, such as between two schools. This includes public transport and taxi costs. 

If you plan to use your own car for work purposes, you can either claim a set rate of 88 cents per kilometre for all work journeys, or you can claim the actual expenses incurred. If you choose the latter, you’ll need to keep receipts for all costs (including road tolls and parking fees) and also keep a logbook of all your journeys for a 12-week period. 

If you’re required to work overtime, you can claim for the cost of buying meals provided you have been paid an allowance by your employer.

Working from home

If you spend time working from home – for instance preparing staff rosters at the weekend for the week ahead – you can claim a proportion of home running costs, either based on actual costs (in which case you’ll need receipts), or a standard rate of 70 cents per hour. The 70 cents rate covers:

  •  home and mobile internet or data expenses
  •  mobile and home phone usage expenses
  • electricity and gas (energy expenses) for heating, cooling and lighting
  • stationery and computer consumables, such as printer ink and paper

Therefore, be careful not to “double dip” and claim separately for mobile phone costs (even if you are using your mobile phone outside the home, for instance while you are on the road). 

Equally, the 70 cents rate doesn’t include:

  • depreciation of technology and office furniture such as chairs, desks, computers, bookshelves. 
  • repairs and maintenance of these items.
  • Office cleaning costs.

So be sure to include separate claims for these items!

Tools and equipment

You can claim a deduction for items for any capital items used, such as a laptop or computer (provided you paid for its yourself). If the cost is less than $300, a deduction is claimable immediately, otherwise a deduction can be claimed over the “effective life” of the assets.

Agency costs

If you get your work through an agency, the cost is claimable.

But don’t embellish deductions….

You can only claim what you’ve spent. So, don’t inflate deductions in order to get a bigger refund and only claim for costs you can prove you spent, by producing an invoice, receipt or bank statement for instance.

Self-lodgers using the ATO’s myTax program are monitored as they prepare their return by the ATO’s computer systems to ensure they’re not over-claiming.

The ATO’s computer systems compare your claims to those of others like you and if your claim rings alarm bells, myTax will give you a stern warning inviting you to rethink that deduction. Ignore that message, and you could be headed for an audit!

If your deduction claims are found to be incorrect, you will be required to repay the tax avoided, plus pay interest. If the ATO believes that you have acted carelessly, a penalty between 25 per cent and 95 per cent of the tax avoided may also be charged.

Don’t rely on pre-filled data from the ATO

These days, with the push of a button, you can pre-fill lots of your income information straight from the ATO’s systems. Take care though and don’t assume that income data is correct or complete.

Particularly if you are lodging early, always use your own information as the key source data. 

Some people assume that because the data comes from the ATO, it must be right. That’s a dangerous assumption, especially in July and early August.

If you omit income and get questioned by the ATO, the legal burden will be on you, even though you’ve taken the information straight from the ATO’s pre-filled data.

Don’t forget the basics!

Lots of tax returns get held up by the ATO because taxpayers have made basic mistakes like these:

Name or address changed? Tell the ATO before you lodge your return. If you lodge under different details, the ATO won’t be able to match it with your Tax File Number. Delays will ensue!

Not included your bank account details? The ATO doesn’t send out refund cheques these days so you need to include your bank details on your return. No bank details, no refund!

Spelling mistake? If you’ve added an extra letter to a key field such as your name, that slip of the keyboard could consign your return to a black-hole whilst the ATO tries to manually match your details. 

Get help! There’s a reason 70 per cent of Australians use a tax agent to prepare their tax return; tax is complicated! Get your tax return wrong and the comeback is on you, either with a lower refund or ATO penalties.  

Most people find it far less stressful to simply pass on all their information to a tax agent and leave it to the agent to complete their return, safe in the knowledge that the return will be accurate and complete.

An experienced agent will usually be good at sniffing out those obscure tax deductions you didn’t know you could claim so they can often pay for themselves several times over. Best of all, the tax agent’s fee is also tax deductible!

SD: Are there any specific things that are claimable that might be overlooked?

Professional memberships and subscriptions: If you’re a member of a professional or trade association as part of your work, you can claim a deduction for the amount you pay in subscriptions.

This also covers union fees if you’re a member of a trade union, as well as subscriptions to trade or professional magazines or – if you’re an investor – subscriptions to investment magazines, such as those focusing on shares or investment properties.

Don’t forget, if you prepay your fees or subscriptions for the next tax year before 30 June 2025, you can claim a deduction this year, which can be a useful timing benefit.

Tax Affairs: If you paid for a tax professional to complete last year’s tax return, you can claim a deduction for the cost in this year’s return. Better still, you can also claim a deduction for any travel costs you incurred in getting to and from your agent. If you’ve paid for any tax advice during the year, that too is deductible. 

Income Protection Insurance: If you pay for insurance premiums against loss of income, those amounts are tax deductible. But be careful; that doesn’t include life insurance, critical care insurance or trauma insurance. It also excludes policies paid for out of your superannuation contributions.

Superannuation: You can make additional concessional contributions up to your concessional contributions cap (currently $30,000) and claim an income tax deduction for doing it. This means you can tax effectively top up your super, provided you don’t breach your concessional contributions cap.

The super guarantee payments made by your employer, as well as any salary sacrificed contributions, are also included in your concessional contributions so effectively the amount you can pay into super through a tax deductible contribution is the difference between those other contributions and the $30,000 cap.

So, if you have some spare cash, this can be great way to boost your retirement savings and claim a tax deduction for doing it.

The payment must be made within the current tax year and you need to advise your super fund that you’ve made the payment by the time you lodge your 2025 return (your super fund or accountant can give you guidance on how to complete the form and there’s a standard form on the ATO website here.)

SD: Do you have any other tips that might maximise teachers' tax return?

There are teacher specific expenses you can’t claim as deductions:

  • Self-education if your study is only related in a general way or is designed to help you get a new job. For example, you can't claim the cost of study to enable you to move from being a teacher's aide to being a teacher.
  • Home office occupancy expenses related to the cost of rates, mortgage interest, rent and insurance.
  • The cost of car trips between home and work, even if you live a long way from your usual workplace or have to work outside normal business hours (for example, parent-teacher interviews).
  • Gifts you purchased for students.
  • Meeting students' personal expenses (for example, paying for lunch, excursions or schoolbooks).

Our advice is the same whether you're a first-year teacher or have been in the job for a while.

As a general rule, if you're not reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses related to work, you can claim it.

Retain all of your receipts and invoices, bank and credit card statements, as well as a journal of the number of kilometres you travelled for work this year, including when and where you went and why it's work-related.

SD: Is there anything else you would like to mention?

The deadline for lodging for people who use the ATO’s myTax system is 31 October 2025. People who lodge through a tax agent have longer to lodge – they can potentially lodge all the way to 15 May 2026.

It is best to avoid lodging in the first weeks of July. Although tax time technically begins on 1 July, you need to be careful during the first few weeks of tax time. Lodge too early and some of the information you need to complete your return may be missing. 

In relation to your wages and salary, income statements have replaced payment summaries, which means all the information is lodged digitally and automatically provided directly to the ATO.

Income statements show year-to-date salary and wages, PAYG withholding tax and any employer super contributions, but employers have until July 31 to finalise this information. When this is done, the income statement will be marked as ‘tax ready’.

Most employers will complete this process by the middle of July, even though they have until 31 July.

Therefore, it’s important to check that your employer has finalised the information in your income statement and it is marked as ‘tax ready’ before you lodge.

If you lodge before your income statement is ‘tax ready’, you are basically relying on incomplete information, which might change.

This will lead to your tax return being wrong, which means it needs to be amended after it is lodged, potentially affecting the amount of your refund.

It’s not just employers who are affected; information from banks, health funds and government agencies will also be automatically inserted into your tax return and, for most people, this will happen during early July and be complete by the end of July. 

The conclusion is that it is worth waiting for all the information to be downloaded into your tax return before lodging.

This date is different for everyone, but at a minimum, it means waiting until the middle of July onwards.