So you want to claim your home internet on your income tax return?
Firstly if you use your home internet for work or business use then yes you can claim it! The issue is if you also use your home internet for non income generating activities (for example checking facebook or watching movies of cats on you tube) you will need to account for some of your use as private and some as business / work related.
How do we work this out? here is the ATO’s version
Great music but what does the video actually tell you? Firstly you need to keep bank statements and tax invoices to prove your expenditure. Once you have that you will need to do a reasonable estimate of your business and private use of the internet. You (the taxpayer) need to make this estimate as no one else knows how you use your internet and you must be reasonable in your estimate. Apart form that the ATO is silent on how to do this, we do recommend that no matter how you work out your private and business use percentage that you write down your calculations and you keep this document with the rest of your tax records.
The ATO is spending a lot of time and effort auditing home office and work related deductions so please do make an effort to get this right as you may well have to justify your claim to an ATO auditor. If in doubt give us a call on 1300 627 829 and we can give you some personal advice.
