Police car and travel deductions
91c a km, and when it applies

Normal trips between home and your regular place of work are private, and the ATO's police guide spells out three situations that don't change that. They're the three reasons police most often give.

Most officers have a regular station, so the shifting-workplace exception rarely applies. The ATO defines it as having no fixed place of work and continually travelling from one work site to another before returning home. If you're in a relieving or roving role and think you might qualify, get advice from a registered tax agent before you claim.

Travel is deductible when it happens in the course of your work. The ATO's police guide gives several police examples, which are the best test of where the line sits.

Notice how the ATO treats the last leg of the day. If you go from home to the academy and then to your station, both legs are work trips. The drive home from your station afterwards is a normal trip from your regular workplace, so it isn't.

Ask where the trip starts and ends. If one end is home and the other is your regular station, it's private.

The ATO allows home-to-work trips if you carry bulky tools or equipment for work, but only when all three conditions are met. It isn't enough that you choose to carry gear home, or that it's inconvenient to leave it at work.

1. 1

   The equipment is essential to your duties

   Condition 1

   It's needed to do your job, not just helpful or preferred.

2. 2

   It's bulky

   Condition 2

   Because of its size and weight it's awkward to transport and can only be transported conveniently by motor vehicle.

3. 3

   There's no secure storage at work

   Condition 3

   If your employer provides secure storage, taking the items home is your choice and the trips stay private.

For most general duties officers this won't apply: firearms and appointments are stored at the station, and the ATO says carrying an item that's illegal on public transport doesn't make the trip deductible on its own. It can be relevant to some specialist roles, such as a dog handler or a diver with large equipment and no storage at the workplace, but the facts need to fit all three conditions.

If you own or lease the car (directly from a finance company), you can use the cents per kilometre method. Multiply your work kilometres by the rate for the year. The rate covers all your car running costs, including decline in value, registration, insurance, maintenance, repairs and fuel, so you can't add any of those on top.

You can estimate kilometres reasonably from a pattern, for example a 20 km round trip once a week for 48 weeks is 960 km, as long as the pattern is real and you can explain it. For police, whose trips are irregular, a diary or the myDeductions tool in the ATO app is far safer than an estimate.

If your force pays you per kilometre for using your own car on official business and it's on your income statement, it's an allowance. You declare the allowance as income, then claim your deduction separately using cents per km or a logbook. You can't simply claim the allowance amount, and you can't leave it out and still claim.

When the allowance roughly matches the ATO rate, the tax effect is small: the allowance is doing the work. The ATO's police example uses a 50c per km allowance on 320 km: the officer declares $160 and claims 320 km at the full ATO rate. A true reimbursement of an exact cost is different: it isn't income, and you can't claim the cost.

The alternative to cents per km is the logbook method. You keep a valid logbook to establish your work-use percentage and keep written evidence of all your car expenses, then claim that percentage of the actual costs. It suits people who drive a lot for work, which few police do in their own car, because fleet vehicles are used for most duty travel.

The novated lease rule catches people. The ATO's example is an AFP officer with a novated car who drives to meetings away from her office: she can't claim any running costs because the car is on a salary sacrifice arrangement. Weigh that up before choosing a novated lease for a car you'll use for work. Once you claim car expenses for a car using one method, you can't also claim petrol, servicing or insurance for it separately.

Not deductible: parking at or near your regular station, tolls between home and your regular station, and any cost your employer reimburses. Fines are never deductible, including the ATO's example of a detective who runs a red light on the way to court.

When your work requires you to travel and sleep away from home, you can claim accommodation, meals and incidentals you pay for. Courses, conferences, extraditions, prisoner escorts and country deployments are typical police examples. If your employer provides the accommodation and meals, or reimburses you, there's nothing to claim.

If you're paid a travel allowance, you generally declare it. You don't need receipts for meals and incidentals (not overseas accommodation) if your claim is within the ATO's reasonable amounts for the year, which vary by salary band and location and are set in TD 2026/4 for 2026-27. Claim more and you need written evidence for all of it. You still have to show you were away, spent the money, and how you worked out the claim.

The ATO's AFP example is an officer who travels to Canberra monthly for three days, with flights and accommodation paid by the AFP and a meal allowance. She can claim her actual meal costs up to the reasonable amount without receipts, but not flights or accommodation, because she didn't pay for them.

An overtime meal allowance paid under your award or agreement is taxable when it's on your income statement. You can claim the meal you buy and eat during the overtime, and up to the ATO's reasonable amount you don't need a receipt. You claim what you spent, not the allowance.

If an overtime meal allowance is on your payslip but not your income statement, and you spent it all on the meal, you can leave both the allowance and the deduction out. Meals during a normal shift are never deductible. The overtime and penalty rates guide shows how each force pays overtime itself.

Moving for a transfer is private, whether you asked for the move or the force directed it. The ATO's example is a highway patrol officer temporarily transferred from Sydney to Newcastle for two years: she can't claim relocation costs, or rent and living costs in Newcastle. A relocation allowance from your force is taxable income.

This matters if you're weighing a country posting or an interstate move. Incentive payments are taxable too, so compare offers after tax. See transferring interstate and remote and rural incentives.

Car claims are where a reasonable-sounding claim most often turns out to be wrong. These mistakes follow directly from the ATO's police guide and its general car rules.

Secondary employment is the one area where some officers miss a legitimate claim. If you have approved secondary employment and travel directly from your station to that job, the ATO's example of a constable doing exactly this says the trip is deductible, because it's between two workplaces and neither is your home. The trip from home to the second job, or home from it, isn't.

The return you lodge for 2025-26 and the one you'll lodge for 2026-27 work differently. If you drive for work, set up your records now for the new year.

The practical test for 2026-27 is simple. If your work car travel alone comes to more than about 1,099 km, or car plus uniform and other costs exceed $1,000, itemise and keep a log. If not, the standard deduction is worth more and needs no records.

Take a Queensland Senior Constable at step 2.1 on $96,528 base salary from the current table. Over 2026-27 they use their own car for these trips, with no fleet car available and no reimbursement. The trip counts and distances are example figures.

That officer's car and parking claim is $1,070. In 2026-27 car expenses reduce the $1,000 standard deduction, so this is only worth itemising if their total work expenses, including uniform and laundry, beat $1,000. Here, car costs alone come close. Run your own pay and marginal rate through the calculator.

For cents per km, the ATO wants proof you own the car and a record showing how you worked out your work kilometres, such as a diary or the myDeductions tool. For the logbook method, you need a valid logbook plus written evidence of every car expense. Overnight travel needs receipts unless the reasonable-amount exception applies.

From 1 July 2026 the ATO removed the award transport expense exemption, along with the $300 and $150 laundry exceptions, as part of introducing the standard deduction. The cents per km method still needs only kilometre records, not fuel receipts. For everything else police can claim, see the police tax deductions guide, and for uniform costs, uniform and laundry deductions.