Doctor tax return checklist for 2026

Your deductions are probably worth more than most doctors realise, and the reason they go unclaimed is rarely doubt about the rules. It is time. Between rotations, on-call and exam prep, the return gets done fast, and the four-figure college fees and the indemnity top-up get left on the table because nobody sat down long enough to gather them. This checklist is built to be run in one sitting. Work down it before you lodge, and the costs that actually earned your income land back on your return where they belong.

Income and what to have ready

Start with the money coming in, then the money going out.

• Your income statement. Your hospital finalises it in myGov, usually by mid-July. Wait for the "Tax ready" status before you lodge so the figures are the final ones.
• Every employer, not just the main one. If you moved hospitals mid-year, picked up locum shifts as an employee, or held a second appointment, each one reports separately. Check they all appear before you file.
• Locum or private work on an ABN. Paid gross, no tax withheld? That is business income on a different footing, not a work-related deduction on this checklist. If you did both in the one year, keep the two apart and see a medical accountant for the ABN side.
• The year's receipts and statements. Fee notices, membership renewals, exam invoices, and the bank records that catch the direct debits you would otherwise forget.

Self-education, exams and conferences

For most doctors, and registrars especially, this is the largest number on the return, so it is worth getting right rather than rushing.

• College training and examination fees. Deductible where the training relates to the specialty you are already employed in. Written, clinical, barrier and fellowship exam fees sit here too.
• Exam prep. Coaching courses, question banks and the stack of textbooks, where they support your current role.
• Conferences and seminars. Registration is claimable when the content relates to your work, plus accommodation and meals for the nights you must stay away.
• The reimbursed portion comes off. Anything your hospital pays or covers through a CPD or education allowance is not yours to claim, only what you funded yourself.

The boundaries here carry real money and a few traps, particularly overseas conferences and study that shifts you toward a new specialty. Our chapter on self-education, exams and conferences works through them properly.

Registration, indemnity and memberships

• AHPRA registration renewal. Your annual renewal to keep practising is deductible. The first-ever registration that got you onto the register is not.
• Medical indemnity, but only the part you pay. Most public hospitals cover your indemnity for public-hospital work, which leaves nothing to claim there. What is deductible is what you fund yourself: top-up cover for private or locum work, run-off cover, or the gap above what your employer provides.
• AMA, ASMOF and college fees. Annual membership of the AMA, your union and your medical college is deductible. Joining fees are not.
• Income protection insurance. Premiums are deductible unless the policy is held inside super.

The indemnity line trips up more doctors than any other, because it feels like an obvious claim and often is not. Our chapter on registration, indemnity and fees spells out where the line sits.

Equipment, journals and clothing

• The $300 rule on equipment. A stethoscope, loupes, a pen torch or a tourniquet costing $300 or less comes off in full the year you buy it. Above $300, you claim its decline in value over its working life.
• Journals, texts and clinical software. UpToDate and similar subscriptions are claimable for the work-related portion, as are professional journals and reference books.
• Scrubs and laundry. Scrubs and other protective clothing are deductible, and so is laundering them at the ATO's set per-load rate. If your total laundry claim is $150 or less you need no written evidence, though you still show how you worked it out. If the hospital launders your scrubs, there is nothing to claim.

What counts as protective versus conventional is narrower than it looks, and prepaid multi-year subscriptions get apportioned. Our chapter on equipment, journals and clothing covers the detail.

Travel and phone

• Driving between sites for the same employer, the same day. Hospital to hospital, or your rooms to theatre, is claimable by the cents-per-kilometre method or a logbook.
• The work share of your phone and data. Worked out from a representative period rather than estimated. If your total phone claim is under $50 and incidental, you can claim it without itemised records.

The commute is where doctors most often claim something they cannot, on-call callbacks included. Our chapter on car, travel and the on-call question sets out which trips count.

What to leave off

A handful of costs feel work-related but get knocked back, and claiming them is where a return draws attention:

• The home-to-hospital commute. Private even when you live far out, work odd hours, or are called back in at 2am. An on-call callback to your regular hospital is still a commute.
• Initial registration and qualifying study. The cost of becoming a doctor, not of working as one.
• Study to change specialty. Training into a field you do not yet work in is a new vocation, not maintenance of your current one.
• HECS-HELP repayments. Never deductible, and neither are course fees you funded through HECS-HELP.
• Flu shots and other vaccinations, even where your role requires them.
• Conventional clothing. Plain business attire, plain black pants and a plain white lab coat, even if the ward expects them.
• Relocating for a rotation or new post. Removalists, transport and temporary accommodation are private costs of starting to earn income there.
• Hospital galas and networking dinners, private even when attendance is expected or work gets discussed, and the travel to them.
• Fines and penalties, including the parking ticket you copped rushing in.

Keep the records, or the claim falls over

A deduction is only worth what the evidence behind it can prove. Keep written evidence for each claim, and if your total work-related claims come to more than $300, you need it for all of them, not just the large ones. For any trip of six or more nights away, keep a travel diary of what was work and what was not. The habit that saves the most is logging each cost as it lands rather than reconstructing a year the night before you lodge. The ATO's free myDeductions tool handles the basics.

The bottom line

Run this once before you file and the deductions that quietly slip past a busy year, the exam fees, the indemnity top-up, the registration renewal, the conference interstate, come back onto your return. Claim what you paid for and can evidence, leave the private costs off, and your bill settles on your real income after the genuine work costs are stripped out. You earned it in long hours; this is just keeping your share of it.

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