I went on a business trip for work, accommodation for the duration of the business trip required (e.g., total 700). I paid using gift cards gifted to me over Christmas. Can I claim the 700 or only the portion in excess of the amount paid with gift cards?
Hi @mizapple,
Thanks for your patience while we checked this out. In your situation @mrsquiggle is correct, you would not be able to claim a deduction because you did not purchase the gift card.
If you purchased the gift card yourself and used it to purchase work related expenses (WRE), you can claim a deduction for the WRE as you have incurred the cost of the gift card. Check out the example of Mateo under ‘Computers and software’ in the Employees guide for work expenses.
If you were given the gift card that you used to pay for the WRE as a gift, you can’t claim a deduction as you have not incurred the expense of the gift card. This is similar to someone else paying for a WRE directly, see the example of Corey, at paragraph 10 in TR2020/1 Income tax: employees: deductions for work expenses under section 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.
You also can’t claim a deduction for a WRE that you purchased using a reward or incentive for buying an item, for example, a gift card received for spending a particular amount on a household item, because you did not incur the expense.
Let us know if you have any other questions.
No you can't because no money was spent on the expenses. Its been asked before Gift Cards used for Work Related Expenses | ATO Community
The post you sent on the link is for adding the gift card value as taxable income. It is not related to deductions.
Hi @mizapple,
We are just going to double check this one with our tech team.
Thanks you. I found thias one but not sure if its still valid.
Hi @mizapple,
Thanks for your patience while we checked this out. In your situation @mrsquiggle is correct, you would not be able to claim a deduction because you did not purchase the gift card.
If you purchased the gift card yourself and used it to purchase work related expenses (WRE), you can claim a deduction for the WRE as you have incurred the cost of the gift card. Check out the example of Mateo under ‘Computers and software’ in the Employees guide for work expenses.
If you were given the gift card that you used to pay for the WRE as a gift, you can’t claim a deduction as you have not incurred the expense of the gift card. This is similar to someone else paying for a WRE directly, see the example of Corey, at paragraph 10 in TR2020/1 Income tax: employees: deductions for work expenses under section 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.
You also can’t claim a deduction for a WRE that you purchased using a reward or incentive for buying an item, for example, a gift card received for spending a particular amount on a household item, because you did not incur the expense.
Let us know if you have any other questions.
Thanks for the feedback and the clarification. The previous post did not make that distinction.
This should be clear in the notes I guess, but as it's my first time to use gifted cards, I understand. Does the receipt of the gift card need to be provided?
@mizppel, It's always a good idea to have as much evidence as you can to support your claims. Thanks for pointing out that other post, I will update it so other people aren't confused.
Just a question following on from this.
You've said that if I purchased the gift card then used it for WRE then I could claim the deduction. What if I earned the gift card another way?
In my case specifically, I received the gift card for trading in an old phone, I used the gift card to purchase a new phone which I used for work purposes. The previous phone was used for personal use only, and therefore I had not recorded it as a deduction or depreciated it.
Hi @benaw,
It is unlikely you could claim the cost of the new phone since you didn't incur a cost.
If you had purchased the gift card, then you incurred a cost and might be able to claim. In your scenario, you did not incur a cost, instead used a gift card that you didn't pay for.
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