Tax deductions for real estate agents in 2026: what you can claim

Real estate sits near the top of the country's list for average deductions, and it isn't a fluke. Selling property means marketing yourself and your listings, running a car all day, and carrying costs the agency doesn't cover, most of it out of a commission you haven't banked yet. The size of the deduction is really the size of what you fund yourself. The job is to claim all of that, and none of the costs that only look work-related.

What actually makes a cost claimable

Three things have to be true. You paid for it and the agency didn't reimburse you, it connects directly to earning your commission, and you kept a record. Where a cost is part work and part private, like your car or your phone, you claim the work share and leave the rest. That single split decides most of your return.

The car is usually your biggest claim

Few jobs use a car the way this one does: appraisals, open homes, taking buyers between listings, the run to the printer before a campaign goes live. That travel is deductible, and for most agents it is the single largest line. The drive from home to the office and back is private, but once you are moving between work locations during the day it counts. Two methods are available, cents per kilometre for lighter use or a logbook for heavier use, and for a working agent the logbook almost always wins. Keep it for twelve continuous weeks and it sets your work-use percentage for years.

Marketing yourself and your listings

This is the part that makes real estate different, and it turns on one rule. Self-funded marketing and client gifts are only deductible if you earn commission, or commission plus a retainer. If you are on a fixed salary with no commission, the ATO does not let you claim them at all. Clear that bar and, where you fund it yourself and the agency did not reimburse you, your promotion is deductible: your own social media advertising, professional photography and video for a listing, floor plans, signboards, business cards, and the "just listed" and "just sold" drops you pay to send. The line to watch is entertainment. A settlement gift the client takes home, like a hamper or a bottle of wine, is a deductible gift, but a client lunch, coffee, drinks or event tickets are entertainment, and entertainment is not deductible however much business gets done over it.

The deductions that get missed

Beyond the car, the ones agents most often leave on the table are the recurring professional costs and the marketing they quietly self-fund:

• Listing production you pay for. The photographer, the drone footage, the floor plan or the video you commissioned and weren't reimbursed for.
• Your licence and CPD. Renewing your certificate of registration or agent's licence, and the continuing professional development you have to complete to keep it.
• Institute membership. Fees for your state's Real Estate Institute or a professional body tied to the work.
• Software and subscriptions. The CRM, the appraisal or comparable-sales tools and the portals you pay for out of your own pocket.
• Phone. The work-related share of a plan that rings all weekend during a campaign.

What you can't claim

A few costs feel essential to the image of the job but never qualify:

• Your presentation wardrobe. The suit, the dress, the shoes and the haircut are conventional clothing and grooming. There is no uniform in real estate, so none of it is deductible, however much presentation matters to a listing.
• Client entertainment. Meals, drinks and event tickets for clients are entertainment, and that door is closed.
• The commute. Home to the office is private, even when you head straight out to an open home afterwards.
• Getting your licence. The course and registration that got you into real estate came before your first listing, so they sit outside the work of earning commission.

Catch every receipt before the campaign year scatters them

A commission year generates a lot of small, scattered receipts, and scattered is how deductions get lost. The ATO expects written evidence for each expense, a logbook behind your car claim, and a note of how you worked out any work-use share. The habit that protects you is capturing each cost the day it happens, not rebuilding a year of them the night before you lodge, which is when the photographer's invoice and the signboard run quietly vanish. The ATO's free myDeductions app covers the basics. PFO+ Tax is made for a job this admin-heavy: it files each receipt against the right category the moment you spend, keeps the whole campaign year encrypted and stored in Australia, and hands you an accountant-ready pack at tax time. Everything stays yours, kept in Australia and never passed to anyone else.

The bottom line

Real estate rewards agents who track well, because so much of the job is self-funded. Claim the car properly with a logbook, claim the marketing and listing production you pay for, and claim your licence, CPD and institute fees. Leave out the wardrobe, the client entertainment and the commute. Get that split right, keep the evidence as you go, and the deduction looks after itself.

Related: work-from-home & work-related deductions · income tax calculator. General information only, not tax advice. Check the ATO or a registered tax agent for your situation.

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