As flexible working arrangements continue to become more widely practiced, the ATO has released new record keeping requirements for Working from Home deductions.

For the 2023-24 and later income years, you must keep a record for the entire income year of the number of hours you worked from home during that income year. An estimate of the hours worked during the period will no longer be accepted. A record of your hours worked in the income year can be kept in any form, provided it is kept contemporaneously.

For example, records may be kept in one of the following forms:

– timesheets
– rosters
– logs of time spent accessing employer systems or online business systems
– time-tracking apps
– a diary or similar document kept contemporaneously.

For the 2022-23 income year only, you need to keep:
– a record which is representative of the total number of hours worked from home during the period from 1 July 2022 to 28 February 2023, and
– a record of the total number of actual hours you worked from home for the period 1 March 2023 to 30 June 2023.

For our clients who work from home, we suggest that you begin tracking your work from home hours using one of the above methods as soon as possible.