Retail phone, self-education and union fees

Beyond the uniform and the gear, a retail return is made of a few small recurring costs that are easy to forget: the part of your phone bill that goes on work, the course that sharpens the job you already do, and the union fee ticking over on a quiet direct debit. None of them is large on its own, but across a year they are worth claiming, and each has a rule that decides whether it counts.

Your phone and internet

If you use your own phone for work, checking rosters, running the store's app, taking calls about shifts, you can claim the work-related portion of the bill. The word portion matters: you cannot claim the whole plan, because the phone is plainly personal as well. Work out a fair work-use percentage, ideally from a representative four-week period, and apply it across the year. Where the use is only incidental and your total claim is $50 or less, you can claim without detailed records; above that, keep the bill and the working behind your percentage. If the store provides the phone and pays the plan, or reimburses you, there is nothing to claim.

Self-education, and the current-role test

Study is deductible when it has a genuine connection to the job you do now. A course counts if, at the time you pay for it, it maintains or improves the skills you use in your current role, or is likely to increase the income you earn from it. A retail assistant taking a Certificate III in Retail that builds on their floor and sales work fits squarely inside that test. A course sits outside it when it is really about getting a different job: study aimed at moving into a new field, or the qualification that first got you into retail, is not deductible, because it comes before or beyond the role you are being paid for. When a course qualifies you can claim its fees, textbooks, stationery and study assets, and travel to attend. Repayments on HELP, HECS-HELP and similar study loans are never deductible.

Union and association fees

Union fees are deductible, and for many retail workers the SDA fee is the most reliable claim on the return. A professional or industry association subscription tied to your work counts too. Your union usually issues a statement of what you paid over the year, and your income statement may also show the amount, so this is one of the easier claims to substantiate.

Working from home, for the roles that do

Most shop-floor work cannot support a home-office claim, because the job is done in the store. The exception is a role with genuine admin done at home: a buyer, a visual merchandiser planning displays, or a store manager doing rosters, ordering and reporting after hours. Where that work is real, the running costs are deductible through one of the ATO methods, either a set rate for each hour worked at home or the actual work-related portion of your bills. The rate the ATO sets changes from year to year, so read the current figure off the ATO working-from-home page rather than carrying an old one over. One catch to remember: the fixed-rate method already includes your phone and internet, so you cannot claim those again separately on top of it.

The bottom line

Take the work-related portion of your phone, the study that builds on the job you already hold, and your union or association fees, and where your role genuinely includes admin at home, the running costs that come with it. Keep each claim to its work-related portion, hold the bills and the union statement, and describe your phone percentage the way you actually reached it. These are small lines, but they are real, and they are the ones most often left behind.

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