Missing Super

Well, I was on my phone and cbf googling for you. But since I'm not any more:

https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Deductions-you-can-claim/Home-office-expenses/

If you perform some of your work from a home office, you may be entitled to a deduction for the costs you incur in running it, including:

for home office equipment, such as computers, printers and telephones, the cost (for items costing up to $300) or decline in value (for items costing $300 or more) work-related phone calls (including mobiles) and phone rental (a portion reflecting the share of work-related use of the line) if you can show you are on call, or have to phone your employer or clients regularly while you are away from your workplace

heating, cooling and lighting the costs of repairs to your home office furniture and fittings cleaning expenses.

https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/income-and-deductions/deductions-you-can-claim/tools,-equipment-and-other-assets/

If the tools are used for both work and private purposes you will need to apportion the amount you claim. If you have a computer that is used for private purposes for half of the time you can only deduct 50% of the cost.

Re: Insurance:

You can also claim the cost of repairing and insuring your tools and equipment and any interest on money you borrowed to purchase these items.

re: Claiming rent, when being self-employed: https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/In-detail/Deductions-for-specific-industries-and-occupations/Engineers---claiming-work-related-expenses/

Occupancy expenses include rent or mortgage interest, council rates and house insurance premiums. You can only claim occupancy expenses where your home office is considered to be a place of business. If your only income is paid to you as an employee, you generally cannot claim a deduction for your occupancy expenses.

When I inquired about how to prove the 'home office is considered to be a place of business' you just need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the room is only used for business purposes. But you'd have to check with your own accountant or the ATO if you don't want to take my word for it.

The rest of the running costs can be claimed as per the ATO links above. For internet/phone usage you need records of percentage of use for work-related purposes obviously.

There's also a calculator here: https://www.ato.gov.au/Calculators-and-tools/Home-office-expenses-calculator/

/r/AusFinance Thread Parent