What is the WFH fixed rate for 2024-25 and 2025-26?

70 cents per hour for both 2024-25 and 2025-26 under ATO PCG 2023/1 (as continued by PCG 2024/2). The rate was 67c for 2022-23 and 2023-24, and 52c for 2020-21 and 2021-22.

What does the 70c rate cover?

Electricity and gas (heating, cooling, lighting), home and mobile internet, home and mobile phone usage, and stationery and computer consumables. You cannot claim these separately if you use the fixed-rate method. Office furniture, computers and decline-in-value of assets are claimed on top.

Can I just estimate my WFH hours?

No. The ATO requires a record of actual hours worked from home for the entire income year (timesheet, roster, calendar, or diary) and the record must be kept at the time the work was done. Estimates are not acceptable and any period without actual records is disallowed. See the ATO 'Wanda' example for what gets cut.

Is the fixed rate method better than actual cost?

Usually yes if you don't have a dedicated home office and your bills are typical for a 1-2 person household. Actual cost wins if you have high energy bills, a genuine home office that you can apportion by floor area, or specific equipment you want to claim separately. You can use either method: pick the one that gives the bigger deduction, but keep the records that match.

Calculator · FY 2025-26

Work From Home Deduction Calculator

Work out your WFH deduction under the ATO fixed-rate method (70c per hour for 2024-25 and 2025-26) and the tax refund it gets back at your marginal rate. Built around the rules in PCG 2023/1, not last year's shortcut method.

Hours per week worked from home Average across the year. Don't pad it: the ATO needs actual records, not estimates. e.g. 3 days × 7.5 hr = 22.5 hours/week, full-time 5 days = 37.5 hours

Weeks per year 52 minus annual leave + public holidays you weren't at the desk most full-timers: 46–48 weeks

Financial year

Annual gross income (for tax refund estimate) Used only to find your marginal rate; we don't model your full return here. e.g. $80,000 puts you in the 30% bracket → 32c refund per $1 deduction (incl. 2% Medicare)

Advanced: depreciating assets you bought this year

Under the fixed-rate method you can still claim chairs, desks, monitors, keyboards, etc. on top. Items ≤$300 are an immediate deduction in full. Items over $300 have to be depreciated over their effective life (use the actual cost method if you bought a $1,500 office chair this year). Below is for the immediate-deduction items only; the rest needs a decline-in-value calculation that's beyond a quick form.

Immediate-deduction items, work portion only (AUD) Sum of items costing $300 or less each e.g. chair $290 + keyboard $80 + lamp $60 = $430

Decline-in-value claim for this year (AUD) If you've already worked it out, drop the annual amount in a $1,500 chair, 80% work use, 10yr life ≈ $120/yr

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Sources applied

Fixed-rate method, 70c/hr · ATO QC72159 + PCG 2023/1 (continued by PCG 2024/2) · applies to 2024-25 and 2025-26
Fixed-rate method, 67c/hr · PCG 2022/D4 finalised as PCG 2023/1 · applies to 2022-23 and 2023-24
Inclusions (what the rate covers) · ATO QC72159 · electricity/gas, internet, phone, stationery, computer consumables, cannot be claimed separately if using fixed-rate
$300 immediate-deduction threshold · ITAA 1997 s.40-80 · items ≤$300 used for non-business income deductible in full; over $300 must be depreciated
Records requirement · ATO QC72159 · actual hours for entire income year (timesheet, roster, calendar, diary), estimates not accepted, plus at least one record per included expense type
Tax brackets for marginal-rate estimate · ATO 2025-26 resident scale, 16c/30c/37c/45c plus 2% Medicare levy

Verified against ato.gov.au

What the 70c rate actually covers

The fixed-rate method bundles five running expenses into a single per-hour figure. If you claim it, you cannot also claim:

Electricity and gas for heating, cooling and lighting your work area
Home and mobile internet / data
Home and mobile phone usage (work calls)
Stationery (pens, paper, printer ink)
Computer consumables (USB sticks, printer cartridges)

You can still claim on top:

Office furniture and equipment, chair, desk, monitor, dock. Items ≤$300 are an immediate deduction; over $300 depreciate over their effective life
Repairs and maintenance on the items above
Occupancy expenses (rent, mortgage interest, council rates), only if you have a genuine dedicated home office, and only the work-area proportion. This is rare and has CGT implications for owner-occupiers

The estimate trap that wipes out most WFH claims

The ATO's published worked example for "Wanda" is the single most important thing to understand: she had a verbal WFH agreement for one day a week, didn't keep records for the first 8 months, then started using her email calendar from 1 March. She claimed nothing for those first 8 months, the ATO disallowed all of it because estimates aren't records.

What counts as a record:

Timesheet (with WFH days flagged)
Roster from your employer
Daily calendar entries logged at the time you worked them
Diary kept contemporaneously

What doesn't count: a four-week sample extrapolated across the year, a reconstruction made at tax time, or anything created after the year ended.

Frequently asked

What is the WFH fixed rate for 2024-25 and 2025-26?: 70 cents per hour for both years under PCG 2023/1, as continued by PCG 2024/2. The rate was 67c for 2022-23 and 2023-24, and 52c for the two pandemic years (2020-21 and 2021-22). The COVID-era 80c "shortcut" method ended 30 June 2022 and is no longer available.
What does the 70c rate cover?: Electricity and gas, home and mobile internet, home and mobile phone usage, stationery, and computer consumables. You can't double-claim any of these separately. Office furniture, computers and other depreciating assets are claimed on top.
Can I just estimate my WFH hours?: No. The ATO needs a record of actual hours worked from home for the entire income year, kept at the time you did the work. Any period that's just an estimate gets disallowed. The ATO's "Wanda" example shows what happens: 8 months of estimated hours wiped, only the 4 months of calendar-backed hours allowed.
Is the fixed rate method better than actual cost?: For most renters and shared-house workers with average bills, yes, less paperwork and the numbers come out similar. Actual cost wins if you have a dedicated home office room you can apportion by floor area, high energy bills (think: hot Brisbane summer, ducted aircon on for an 8-hour shift), or expensive equipment you want to claim separately. You can switch methods between years; pick the one that gives the larger deduction and keep the records that match.
Does the fixed rate still need a dedicated home office?: No, that requirement was dropped when the method was revised from 1 July 2022. Working at the kitchen bench counts now, as long as you have the hours records.
What about my second monitor I bought last year?: If it cost $300 or less and was for work, immediate deduction in full (apportion if you use it privately too). Over $300, you depreciate it, usually 4 years for monitors, 4-5 years for laptops, and claim that year's slice. The "decline in value" field above is where the annual slice goes.