Travel Log can organise your records and prepare estimates. It cannot decide whether a trip or expense is deductible, and it does not replace ATO guidance or advice from a registered tax agent.
Before recording an ATO claim
- The expense generally needs to relate directly to earning your income, be paid by you, and not be reimbursed.
- Normal travel between home and your regular workplace is generally private, with limited exceptions.
- The car generally needs to be owned or leased by you, including qualifying hire-purchase arrangements.
- Use one calculation method for a particular car in an income year. Different cars or income years can use different methods.
Cents-per-kilometre method
- Travel Log selects the rate from the trip date, including backdated trips.
- The rate is 91¢ per work kilometre for 2026–27.
- Historical rates are 88¢ for 2024–25 and 2025–26, 85¢ for 2023–24, 78¢ for 2022–23, 72¢ for 2020–21 and 2021–22, 68¢ for 2018–19 and 2019–20, and 66¢ for 2015–16 through 2017–18.
- The maximum is 5,000 work kilometres per car, per income year.
- The rate already covers general running costs such as fuel, servicing, insurance and decline in value, so those costs are not claimed separately under this method.
- You do not need receipts for every car cost, but must be able to show how you reasonably worked out the work kilometres.
- If the ATO has not published a rate for the selected income year, Travel Log will stop the estimate instead of carrying forward an old rate.
Logbook method
- Keep a representative continuous logbook for at least 12 weeks.
- For every work journey record its start and end dates, opening and closing odometer readings, kilometres travelled and reason.
- Record the logbook period’s opening and closing odometer readings, total kilometres, work kilometres and business-use percentage.
- Keep the car’s make, model, engine capacity and registration number.
- Record the odometer on the first and last day you hold the car in each income year.
- A valid logbook can generally be relied on for up to five years if the pattern of use has not changed materially. If your circumstances change, start a new representative logbook.
Business-use percentage = logbook work kilometres ÷ logbook total kilometres × 100.
Estimated annual business kilometres = financial-year odometer kilometres × business-use percentage. This is a record-keeping aid; the logbook-method deduction generally applies the business-use percentage to eligible actual car expenses, which still need supporting evidence.