Tax deductions for aged care & disability support workers in 2026: what you can claim

A support worker's day rarely stays in one place. It's spent driving between clients, on the phone coordinating care, and often paying for the small things the job needs out of your own pocket. A lot of that is deductible, and a lot of it slips by unclaimed. Each claim rests on a simple distinction: a cost that helped you support your clients is in, and a cost for your own life is out.

Before any of that, work out one thing: are you a PAYG employee or a sole trader on your own ABN? Support and NDIS work splits down the middle between the two, and it changes which rules apply to you and how your whole return works. Start with employed or sole trader? to settle it, because the deductions below are written for the employed worker paid wages with tax taken out.

The test behind every claim

Three conditions decide every claim. You paid for it yourself and weren't reimbursed, it ties directly to the work you do for your clients, and you kept a record. Come up short on any one and the deduction is gone, however much it feels like part of the job. Where something covers both work and your own life, like the car you drive between clients or the phone you take calls on, you claim only the work-related share.

Driving between clients

This is where a lot of support workers' deductions sit. Driving from home to your first client, and home again from your last, is a private commute, so it isn't deductible. The travel in between is: driving from one client to the next during your shift, and any trips the job sends you on. You claim it one of two ways. The cents-per-kilometre method applies a set rate to each work kilometre, up to 5,000 kilometres a year, and needs only a reasonable record of your trips. The logbook method claims your actual running costs times your work-use percentage, and usually wins if you drive a lot, though it means keeping a twelve-week logbook and your receipts.

Uniforms, protective gear and equipment

A compulsory uniform, or one with your employer's logo, is deductible, along with protective items like gloves and aprons and the cost of laundering them. Ordinary clothing is not, even if you only wear it to work. Gear you buy for the job is deductible too: anything $300 or less comes off in full in the year you buy it, and anything over $300 is claimed gradually as it declines in value.

The deductions that get missed

The smaller, recurring costs are the ones that slip through, and across a year they add up:

• Your phone and internet. The work-related share, for all the client coordination and on-call contact.
• First aid. A first aid course is deductible only if you are the designated first-aid person expected to respond to emergencies at work.
• Check renewals. Renewing a police check, working-with-children check or NDIS Worker Screening Check you need for the job you're already in is deductible. Your first one, to get the job, isn't.
• Union and association fees. Deductible in full.
• Self-education. Training with a genuine connection to your current role, like a course that builds on a skill you already use.

What you can't claim

A handful of costs feel like part of the job but don't qualify:

• Your commute. Home to your first client and back from your last is private, however far it is.
• Everyday clothing. Ordinary clothes aren't deductible, even if you only wear them on shift.
• Getting qualified or cleared the first time. The certificate and the first round of checks that let you start supporting clients came before the income did, so they don't count.
• Grooming and childcare. Both are private, even when work makes them necessary.

Keep the logbook and the renewal notices

A support worker builds up a particular pile of paperwork over a year: the logbook of trips between clients, the receipt for the first aid course, the renewal notices for your police check, working-with-children check and NDIS Worker Screening Check, and the running record of what share of your phone goes on on-call coordination. It's scattered across the car, your inbox and a kitchen drawer, and by July a good half of it has walked off. The ATO expects written evidence for each expense, a logbook if that's how you claim the car, and a record of how you reached any work-use percentage. The habit that saves you is capturing a cost the moment it happens, between one client and the next, rather than piecing a year together the night you lodge. The ATO's free myDeductions app is a fair place to start. PFO+ Tax carries more of the load: photograph the check-renewal receipt or log the drive as you pull up, and it files each one against the right category, keeps them fully encrypted and stored in Australia, and turns them into an accountant-ready pack at tax time. It all stays yours, stored and encrypted in Australia, and never sold on.

The bottom line

Support workers can claim a fair amount, but only for what you paid for yourself, used to earn your income, and can prove. Claim the kilometres between clients, the uniform and protective gear, the work share of your phone, and the first aid course and check renewals that keep you working. Leave out the drive from home to your first client, the everyday clothes, and the first qualification and clearances that got you started. Get those two lists straight, keep the records, and your return reflects what you genuinely owe, not a cent extra.

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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