When is the deadline for my FY2025–26 tax return?

If you lodge yourself through myTax, the standard deadline is 31 October 2026. If you're registered with a tax agent before that date, the agent's lodgment program usually gives you until well into 2027. Check the ATO for your exact due date.

How much can I claim for working from home in 2025–26?

Under the ATO fixed-rate method you can claim 70 cents for every hour you actually worked from home in 2025–26, covering electricity, gas, internet, phone and stationery. You need a real record of your hours (a diary, roster or timesheet) — an estimate isn't accepted.

Can I claim work expenses without receipts?

If your total work-related expense claims are $300 or less, you don't need full receipts, but you still have to show how you worked the amount out and that the expense was work-related. Laundry of work uniforms has a separate $150 no-receipt limit. Above those limits, you need written evidence.

Did the tax brackets change for 2025–26?

No. The 2025–26 resident rates are the same as 2024–25: nil to $18,200, 16% to $45,000, 30% to $135,000, 37% to $190,000 and 45% above that, plus the 2% Medicare levy for most taxpayers.

Australian Tax Return Guide 2026: Deductions, Rates & EOFY Checklist

Short answer

Your Australian tax return for FY2025–26 (1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026) is due by 31 October 2026 if you lodge it yourself, and the biggest wins are the same every year: claim every deduction you're genuinely entitled to, keep the records to prove it, and use super and private health cover to your advantage. Tax rates haven't changed this year, the work-from-home fixed rate is 70 cents an hour, and the deductions people most often miss are the small, boring ones — home office hours, uniform laundry and self-education. This guide pulls all of it into one place.

Key facts

Fact	FY2025–26
Financial year	1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026
Self-lodgment deadline	31 October 2026 (later if you use a registered tax agent)
Tax-free threshold	$18,200
Marginal rates	16% · 30% · 37% · 45% (unchanged from 2024–25)
Medicare levy	2% of taxable income; singles pay nothing below $28,011
Work-from-home fixed rate	70 cents per hour actually worked from home
Concessional super cap	$30,000 (rises to $32,500 from 1 July 2026)
Instant asset write-off (small business)	$20,000 per asset, turnover under $10 million

What's new (and what isn't) for FY2025–26

Honestly, not much has moved. That's good news — it means the numbers you learned last year still work.

Tax brackets. The "stage 3" rates that started on 1 July 2024 carry straight into 2025–26. From the ATO's resident tax rates page:

Taxable income	Tax on this income
$0 – $18,200	Nil
$18,201 – $45,000	16c for each $1 over $18,200
$45,001 – $135,000	$4,288 plus 30c for each $1 over $45,000
$135,001 – $190,000	$31,288 plus 37c for each $1 over $135,000
$190,001 and over	$51,638 plus 45c for each $1 over $190,000

Add the 2% Medicare levy on top for most people. If you want the "why does my marginal rate matter" explainer, I wrote one: how Australian tax brackets work.

Work-from-home rate. The fixed-rate method is 70 cents per hour for both 2024–25 and 2025–26 (it was 67c before that). Old articles and old spreadsheets still say 67c — update them.

Medicare levy low-income thresholds. For 2025–26 a single person pays no Medicare levy with taxable income of $28,011 or less, and a reduced levy up to $35,013. Family thresholds are higher and go up with each dependent child — the ATO calculator works it out for you.

Instant asset write-off. If you run a small business (turnover under $10 million), assets costing less than $20,000 and first used or installed by 30 June 2026 can be written off immediately. Each asset is tested separately.

Super. The concessional (before-tax) cap stays at $30,000 for 2025–26, then lifts to $32,500 from 1 July 2026. If you're thinking about topping up, what is salary sacrifice explains the mechanics.

What can I actually claim? A deductions checklist

The ATO's golden rule: you must have spent the money yourself and not been reimbursed, it must directly relate to earning your income, and you must be able to prove it. Here's the everyday-person version.

Deduction	What counts	What to keep
Work-related expenses	Tools, equipment, protective gear, union and professional membership fees, work-related phone use	Receipts; a diary for phone/internet work percentage
Working from home	70c per hour (fixed rate) OR actual costs; plus depreciation on a desk, chair or laptop used for work	A record of actual hours; receipts for the items
Self-education	Courses, seminars, textbooks and subscriptions that maintain or improve skills for your current job	Receipts and a note on how it relates to your role
Uniform and laundry	Compulsory or occupation-specific clothing, protective items, sun protection for outdoor workers	Receipts; laundry up to $150 without them
Donations	Gifts of $2 or more to a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR)	Receipts (many charities email a yearly summary)
Income protection insurance	Premiums for a policy held outside super	Annual statement from the insurer
Tax agent fees	Last year's agent fee and travel to see them	Invoice
Investment costs	Interest on loans for shares or property, platform fees, accounting fees	Statements; keep purchase records for CGT

If you have investments, remember the sale side too — capital gains tax explained covers what you owe when you sell.

Which deductions do employees most often miss?

I look at a lot of returns, and the same three gaps show up again and again.

1. Home office hours — even if you're "mostly in the office"

You don't need a dedicated study. If you answer emails from the kitchen bench two evenings a week, those hours count. At 70c an hour, 5 hours a week for 48 weeks is 240 hours — about $168. Not life-changing, but it's free money if you have the record. Families juggling hybrid work should read working from home tax deductions for Australian families for the detail on the two methods.

2. Uniform laundry and sun protection

Nurses, tradies, hospitality and retail workers in a logo'd uniform can claim washing it. The ATO accepts claims up to $150 without receipts, as long as you can show how you worked it out (a simple note: "$1 per load, uniform only, 2 loads a week"). Outdoor workers can also claim sunscreen, hats and sunglasses.

3. Self-education that relates to your current role

A first-aid refresher, a specialist nursing module, a software course your job now needs — all deductible, as long as it relates to the job you have now, not one you hope to get. Keep the enrolment receipt and jot down why it's relevant.

How do I keep records the ATO will accept?

This is where most refunds are won or lost. The ATO's records page sets three simple rules:

Under $300 total work-related claims, you don't need full receipts, but you must be able to show what you spent and why.
Over $300, you need written evidence for all of it — not just the amount over $300.
Keep records for five years from the date you lodge.

For work-from-home hours, an estimate is explicitly not acceptable. Use a diary, a roster, timesheets or a recurring calendar entry — anything that shows actual days and hours.

The easiest habit I know is the free myDeductions tool in the ATO app: photograph a receipt when you buy something, log a work trip, tick off your home-office hours each week. At tax time you upload the lot straight into your return or send it to your agent. If you'd like something that also sorts and categorises receipts for you through the year, a tool like AusTax AI can take that job off your plate so July is boring instead of stressful.

What should I do before 30 June? (EOFY checklist)

Print this, tick it off in June.

Everyone

Log your work-from-home hours for the whole year (catch up now, not in October)
Photograph every work receipt into myDeductions or your tracker
Make deductible donations before 30 June if you plan to
Check whether you'll be over the Medicare Levy Surcharge threshold — see the MLS and private health cover guide

Employees

Prepay up to 12 months of deductible subscriptions, memberships or income-protection premiums if it suits your cash flow
Buy the tools, uniform or equipment you genuinely need (each item under $300 can be claimed in full)
Consider a personal deductible super contribution — it must reach the fund by 30 June and you must lodge a notice of intent

Sole traders and side hustlers

Invoice everything outstanding; write off genuinely bad debts
Check the $20,000 instant asset write-off for any equipment you need
Update your car logbook and export income data from Xero, Square, PayPal etc.

Investors

Review capital gains and losses — losses can offset gains in the same year
Gather dividend statements, franking credits and investment loan interest
Keep rental property income and expense records together

Come July, the ATO pre-fills income statements, bank interest, dividends and private health details into myTax, usually by late July. Waiting a few weeks for pre-fill avoids amendments later.

What are the common mistakes?

Using 67c instead of 70c for home office hours.
Claiming the whole phone or internet bill without a work-use percentage.
Claiming normal clothes ("I wear black pants to work" doesn't count — it must be a uniform or protective).
Claiming a course for a future career rather than your current job.
Double-dipping: claiming actual electricity costs and the 70c fixed rate.
Forgetting income: side-hustle, crypto and overseas income all need declaring.
Lodging on 1 July before pre-fill lands, then having to amend.

A worked example: Priya, hybrid worker

Priya is a marketing coordinator on $85,000, working from home two days a week.

Item	Claim
Home office: 16 hrs/week × 46 weeks = 736 hrs × $0.70	$515
Laptop stand and headset for work	$210
Online marketing course (relevant to current role)	$650
Professional association membership	$180
Donations to DGR charities	$200
Last year's tax agent fee	$150
Total deductions	$1,905

At Priya's marginal rate of 30% (plus 2% Medicare levy), those deductions are worth about $610 back in her pocket. She spent the money anyway — the only extra effort was a weekly calendar entry and a few photos in the ATO app.

Now compare Priya with a colleague on the same salary who "didn't bother" because it felt too fiddly. That's a $600 difference every year, compounding into a decent holiday or a chunk of a mortgage payment over a decade.

The takeaway

The FY2025–26 return isn't about clever tricks. It's about three habits: record your home-office hours as you go, photograph receipts the day you get them, and check the deductions table above once in June. Do that and tax time becomes a 20-minute job — and the refund is yours by August.