Hospitality travel, phone and overtime meals

Between the driving, your own phone buzzing with the roster, and the meal you grab mid-shift, it feels like a fair chunk of what the job costs comes out of your pocket. Some of it genuinely does, and you can claim it back. But hospitality returns tend to trip on the same few spots, claiming the drive to work that never counts and missing the meal money that sometimes does. The ATO asks the same question of each of these: was the cost part of doing the job, or part of living your life around it. Here is where the line actually sits.

The commute you can't claim, even with your knives

Driving from home to the venue you work at, and back again when service is done, is private travel. It is not deductible, and it is the biggest thing hospitality workers claim by mistake. None of the reasons it feels unfair change the answer:

• Finishing after close doesn't help. Locking up at 1am and driving home shattered is still ordinary travel to and from work.
• A split shift doesn't help. Being rostered on twice in one day does not turn either drive into a work trip.
• No transport at that hour doesn't help. Having no bus or train home at 2am, so you have to drive, is your circumstance, not a work expense.
• Carrying your knives doesn't help. You can't legally take a knife roll on a train or a bus, but needing to drive because of that does not make the commute claimable on its own.

The trips that count

The moment you are driving for work rather than driving to get to it, the answer flips. These are the legs you are actually entitled to:

• Straight from one job to another the same day. A cafe shift in the morning then a bar shift at night, or a waiting job then a retail job, where neither place is your home. The drive between the two counts.
• Between two venues for the one employer. If your boss sends you from one of their venues to another on the same day, that leg is deductible.
• Home straight to a supplier or off-site training. Driving from home directly to a supplier for stock, or to training that isn't your regular workplace, is a work trip rather than a commute.

Watch the split-shift catch here. If you drive home between the two halves of a split shift and back again, that is two commutes, not travel between workplaces. It only counts when you go directly from one workplace to the next without home in the middle.

The two methods

Once you have a genuine work trip, there are two ways to put a number on the car use. You pick one for the car across the year:

• Cents per kilometre. A flat rate the ATO sets fresh each year for every work kilometre you drive, up to a cap of 5,000 work kilometres. No fuel receipts for this one, but you do need to keep a record of how you reached the kilometres.
• The logbook. You run a logbook to work out your work-use percentage, then claim that share of your actual running costs. More to keep on top of, but it can pay more if the car does real distance for work.

One method per car, and you can't stack them. If the car is on a novated or salary-sacrifice lease you get no claim for its running costs, because you are not the one carrying them, though parking and tolls on genuine work trips still count. And a ute built to carry one tonne or more is not a "car" for tax, so it uses actual costs instead of either method.

Your phone

Your roster lands on your phone, and the venue calls your number when they need you in early or to cover a shift. The work-use share of your own phone and internet is deductible for that. If your total claim is under $50 and the use is incidental, you don't need detailed records. Over that, keep an itemised bill and a record of your work use so you can show how you worked out the share. If the venue provides the phone, there is nothing to claim.

Sun protection for outdoor work

If your shifts put you outdoors for long stretches, on a rooftop bar, in a beer garden, or working functions in the sun, the gear that protects you is deductible: sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat. Apportion for any private use, since you'll wear some of it away from work. Prescription glasses stay private, even if you happen to wear them on shift.

Overtime meals, the narrow way they count

A meal you buy while you are working overtime is deductible, but only in a tight set of conditions. You have to receive an overtime-meal allowance under your award or agreement, it has to be shown separately on your payslip, and you declare it as income. Up to the ATO's reasonable amount you don't need receipts; above that, keep them. The limits are strict for a reason: a meal you eat after the overtime shift has ended does not count, and an ordinary feed on a normal shift is never deductible. Working around food all day does not make the food you eat a work expense.

Records

Two things carry these claims. For the car, keep a record of your work kilometres as you drive them, so the number is real rather than a figure you round up in July. For an overtime meal, hold the working: the allowance on your payslip, and the receipts once you go past the reasonable amount. The ATO's free myDeductions app will log your trips and store the receipts for you.

The bottom line

Leave the commute off, however late you finish or however split your day, and claim the driving that is genuinely part of the job: straight from one job to another the same day, between your employer's venues, and the run to a supplier or training. Pick one car method and keep the kilometres behind it. Claim the work share of your own phone, the sun gear if you're outdoors for real stretches, and an overtime meal only when the allowance and the timing both line up. Sort those out and you claim what's yours without reaching for what isn't.

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