GST is only part of the tax picture for NDIS sole traders — for a detailed walkthrough of how GST applies to your services, check out our NDIS Accounting & GST Guide. The bigger opportunity most support workers leave on the table, however, is deductions.
Every dollar of legitimate work-related expense you claim reduces your taxable income, but the rules differ depending on what you’re buying and how you use it. If you’re new to working for yourself, start with our pillar guide on How to Become an NDIS Sole Trader to get your foundation set up right.
This guide walks through the expense categories that come up most often for NDIS support workers and allied health professionals, with a simple claimable-status label for each.
A note before we start: This is general information to help you understand the categories, not personalised tax advice. Deduction rules depend on your specific circumstances, and the ATO updates rates and thresholds periodically — always check current ATO guidance or speak with a registered tax agent before you lodge.
The Golden Rule of ATO Deductions
Underneath every category below, the core principle applied by the ATO remains the same:
- The expense must be directly related to earning your income.
- You must have actually spent the money yourself (and not been reimbursed).
- You need a record to prove it (receipt, invoice, or diary).
If an expense fails any one of those three tests, it is not deductible, no matter how work-related it feels.
1. Uniforms & Protective Personal Equipment (PPE)
- ✅ Claimable: Compulsory, distinctive uniforms (with a logo or employer/business branding) required for your work.
- ✅ Claimable: Protective clothing and PPE needed for infection control or manual handling — gloves, masks, hand sanitiser, aprons, and non-slip shoes required specifically for the role.
- ❌ Not Claimable: Plain, everyday clothing (e.g., plain black pants or a plain polo shirt) even if you only wear it for work — the ATO treats this as conventional clothing regardless of intent.
- ⚠️ Conditional: Laundering costs for eligible uniforms and PPE are generally claimable, but you need a reasonable basis for the amount claimed and records if the ATO asks.
2. Vehicle Costs
Vehicle costs are usually the single biggest deduction for support workers who drive between participants — but the method you use to claim them changes both the paperwork required and the amount you can claim.
It’s worth keeping this separate in your head from any travel amount you invoice a participant under NDIS pricing rules — that’s income you’ve charged for delivering a service; this is a tax deduction against your own vehicle running costs. The two shouldn’t be double-counted, but they also aren’t mutually exclusive.
Cents-per-Kilometre Method
- ✅ Claimable: Work-related kilometres up to the ATO’s annual cap (currently 5,000 km) using the ATO’s published cents-per-km rate. No logbook required, but you need a reasonable, documented basis for your estimate (e.g., a diary of trips).
- ⚠️ Conditional: The rate and the annual km cap are set and updated by the ATO — check current figures before calculating your claim, as older rates you may have seen quoted elsewhere can be out of date.
Logbook Method
- ✅ Claimable: A percentage of your actual vehicle running costs (fuel, servicing, insurance, registration, depreciation) based on your work-use percentage, calculated from a 12-week logbook. No cap on kilometres, and often better value if you drive extensively between participants.
- ⚠️ Conditional: You must keep a valid 12-week logbook (generally refreshed every five years, or sooner if your work pattern changes materially) plus receipts for every cost you’re claiming a percentage of.
- ❌ Not Claimable: The commute between home and your first participant of the day, or from your last participant home, is generally treated as private travel, not work travel, under either method.
3. Working-From-Home Costs
If you handle admin, invoicing, or scheduling from home, some of those running costs may be deductible too — again, the method matters. This is a category a lot of support workers underclaim, simply because the admin side of the job (confirming shifts, invoicing, logging notes) doesn’t feel like “real work” the way a support session does — but the ATO treats it the same as any other work-related activity, provided you can show the hours.
Fixed-Rate Method
- ✅ Claimable: A set rate per hour worked from home, covering electricity, gas, phone, internet, and stationery combined, using the ATO’s current published rate. Requires a record of the actual hours you worked from home.
- ⚠️ Conditional: You need to keep evidence of hours worked from home (a diary or timesheet) and at least one bill for each expense type covered by the rate — check current ATO record-keeping requirements, as these have changed in recent years.
Actual Cost Method
- ✅ Claimable: The actual work-related percentage of running costs (electricity, internet, phone, depreciation on office equipment), calculated from real bills and a reasonable basis for your work-use split.
- ⚠️ Conditional: Requires more detailed record-keeping than the fixed-rate method — receipts for every expense and a clear calculation of the work-use percentage.
4. Training & Professional Development
NDIS support work and allied health practice both come with an expectation of ongoing learning, and the good news is that most of it counts toward your deductions provided it relates to the work you’re already doing.
- ✅ Claimable: Courses, workshops, and certifications that maintain or improve skills for your current work as a support worker or allied health professional — first aid refreshers, manual handling training, CPD points for a registered profession.
- ⚠️ Conditional: Your NDIS Worker Screening Check renewal fee is generally treated as a cost of maintaining your ability to keep earning income in your current role, and may be deductible on that basis — but check with a tax agent, particularly if it’s your very first check.
- ❌ Not Claimable: Study or courses aimed at moving into a new, unrelated field, or the general cost of gaining the qualifications needed to enter the industry for the first time.
5. Tools & Equipment
- ✅ Claimable: Equipment used directly for your work — items like a mobility aid used with a participant, a first aid kit you supply yourself, or a work phone used for scheduling and invoicing.
- ⚠️ Conditional: Lower-cost items can often be claimed outright in the year of purchase; higher-cost equipment may need to be depreciated over its effective life instead. Thresholds are set by the ATO and reviewed periodically, so check the current rules before deciding how to claim.
- ⚠️ Conditional: Where an item (like a phone or laptop) is used for both work and personal purposes, only the work-related percentage is claimable, based on a reasonable, documented estimate.
Setting Aside Money for Tax & Record-Keeping Tips
As a sole trader, tax isn’t withheld from what you earn the way it is for an employee — it’s on you to set money aside as you go, so a tax bill doesn’t catch you out. A common approach is transferring a portion of every payment you receive into a separate savings account as soon as it lands, rather than trying to find the money later. Exactly how much to set aside depends on your total income and circumstances, so it’s worth getting a figure from your accountant or the ATO’s own estimators rather than guessing.
It’s also worth remembering that deductions reduce your taxable income, not your tax bill directly — so a well-tracked set of deductions can meaningfully change how much you actually owe, but it’s still smart to set aside a buffer based on your income before deductions, and true it up once your figures are finalised.
None of these deductions are worth anything without records to back them up — the ATO generally expects you to substantiate what you claim, and “I’m pretty sure I bought that for work” doesn’t hold up under a review. This is where good habits pay off: photograph or save every receipt as it comes in, log vehicle trips as you make them, and keep work-from-home hours recorded contemporaneously rather than estimated at tax time.
Simplify Your Expense Tracking: Sole’s expense tracking feature is built exactly for this — snap a receipt, categorise it, and it’s ready for BAS or tax time without a shoebox of paper to sort through later. Using dedicated NDIS accounting software gives you one place to track GST, logging hours, and expenses backed by clear evidence, turning tax time into a simple report export.
As always: Sole is software to help you track and organise this information, not a registered tax agent. For advice specific to your situation, speak with a qualified tax professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I claim my work uniform as an NDIS support worker?
Compulsory, distinctive uniforms and required PPE like gloves and masks are generally claimable. Plain, everyday clothing isn’t deductible even if you only wear it for work.
Should I use the logbook method or cents-per-km method for my car?
The cents-per-km method is simpler and needs no logbook but is capped annually and uses a set ATO rate. The logbook method has no km cap and can return a bigger deduction if you drive a lot, but requires a valid 12-week logbook and receipts for actual running costs.
Can I claim working-from-home expenses if I do NDIS admin at home?
Yes, using either the ATO’s fixed-rate method (a set rate per hour worked from home) or the actual cost method (a work-use percentage of real bills). Both require records of the hours you worked from home.
Are NDIS Worker Screening Check fees tax deductible?
Renewal fees are generally treated as a cost of maintaining your ability to earn income in your current role and may be deductible on that basis — but check with a tax agent, especially for your very first check, since costs of entering a new field are treated differently.
How much tax should I set aside as an NDIS sole trader?
It depends on your total income and circumstances, so there’s no single answer — a common habit is transferring a portion of every payment into a separate account as it arrives. Get a specific figure from your accountant or the ATO’s own estimators.
