Construction protective gear, hi-vis and sun protection

On a site, what you wear is split down the middle at tax time, and most tradespeople claim the wrong half. The boots with the steel toe, the hi-vis that keeps you seen near plant, the hard hat and the mask: those protect you from a real hazard, so they come back to you. The jeans and the drill shirt you also have to wear do not, however firmly the site enforces them. This chapter draws that line, adds the sun protection that outdoor trades routinely leave off, and sets out how to wash and record it all. The test underneath is steady. You paid for it yourself, you were not reimbursed, and it guards you against a genuine risk of the job.

Protective gear you buy yourself

Anything you fund to guard against a real or likely risk of injury or illness at work is deductible, and the ATO files it as a protective item rather than clothing, so it stands on its own regardless of any uniform. The one condition is that the cost was yours and you were not paid back for it. If the employer hands the gear out or reimburses you, you incurred nothing and there is no claim.

• Steel-capped boots. The ATO names them explicitly as protective footwear, so the pair that guards your feet on site is deductible.
• Hi-vis vests, jackets and trousers worn so you are seen around traffic, plant and machinery.
• Hard hats, safety glasses and goggles, and the breathing masks or respirators you wear against dust and fumes.
• Protective gloves, harnesses and hearing protection, plus fire-resistant clothing where the work calls for it.
• Overalls and wet-weather or reflective gear worn to protect you or your own clothing on the job.

It is not only the purchase that counts. Buying, repairing, replacing and cleaning these items all come back to you. That makes the recurring buys claimable too: a hi-vis replaced because the reflective tape has worn out is a legitimate deduction year after year, not a one-off.

Sun protection for outdoor work

Spend your days in the open and the sun is a work hazard, which is exactly why the gear you wear against it is deductible. Where you must work in the sun for extended periods and you wear these to protect against that risk, they qualify, and construction clears that bar comfortably.

• Sunscreen, sun hats and sunglasses for the hours the job keeps you exposed, with any private use apportioned out.
• Prescription sunglasses and anti-glare glasses are in, because the protective element is what you are claiming.
• Genuine sunscreen. A TGA-listed product is the safe ground, not a cosmetic with a little protection added.
• Sunglasses over $300 are claimed gradually as they decline in value rather than all in the year you buy them.

The contrast is the part worth holding onto. Ordinary prescription clear glasses stay private and are not deductible even when you wear them all day on site, because nothing about them protects you from the work. The protective element is what tips sunglasses over the line, and it is missing from a plain pair.

The catch that costs tradespeople: conventional clothing

Here is where good claims quietly fall over. With few exceptions, clothing is not deductible, and being told to wear it changes nothing. Plain jeans, drill shirts and shorts, trousers, socks and closed shoes are conventional clothing, so they stay off the return even where the employer mandates them and you only ever put them on for a shift.

• Drill shorts and shirts are named. The ATO calls out the drill shorts and shirts worn by tradespeople as conventional, which settles the item most site workers assume they can claim.
• The mandate does not matter. The test looks at the item and whether it protects you, not at whether the job required it or you wear it nowhere else.
• What does qualify. Genuinely protective items, a compulsory logo uniform that is strictly enforced and identifies the employer, or a registered non-compulsory uniform. Outside those, ordinary clothing does not make the cut.

Laundry

Once a garment is deductible, washing it is too, and you do not need a drawer full of receipts to claim it. The ATO accepts a set rate for laundering the protective clothing and uniform that qualify.

• $1 a load where the wash holds only your work clothing.
• 50c a load where work clothing goes in with the family washing.
• The $150 line. If your laundry claim, not counting dry-cleaning, comes to $150 or less, you need no written evidence, but you still have to show how you reached the figure. Loads a week times the weeks you worked is what backs it.
• Dry-cleaning and repairs at what they actually cost you, on the receipts.

The limit follows straight from the clothing rule. You cannot claim laundering conventional clothing even when it comes home caked from the site, because if the garment was never deductible, washing it is not either.

The records behind it

Every item above stands on its record, and this category runs on small, frequent buys that are the first to slip through: the receipt for the boots, the docket for the replacement hi-vis, the note of how you split private and work use on the sunglasses, the loads-a-week basis behind the laundry figure. Rebuilding a year of that in July is how sound deductions quietly go unclaimed. The ATO's free myDeductions app will hold receipts and a work-use note if you stay on top of it.

The bottom line

Sort your gear into what protects you and what is simply what you wear. The steel-caps, the hi-vis, the hard hat, the mask and gloves, the harness and the wet-weather gear all come back to you, and so does the sunscreen, the hat and the sunglasses when the job keeps you in the sun. The plain jeans, the drill shirt and the ordinary closed shoes do not, however strictly the site enforces them, and neither does washing them. Get that split right, net off anything you were reimbursed, keep the receipts and the laundry count, and your claim lands on what the work honestly costs you.

General information only, not tax advice. Check the ATO or a registered tax agent for your situation.