Can You Claim Internet on Tax?

Internet is claimable — but if you use the 70 cents per hour work-from-home rate, you've already claimed it. The rate has your internet baked in, and claiming both is one of the ATO's favourite flags.

Here's what the fixed rate covers, when itemising your actual bill wins, and how to handle the share-house complication.

For 2025-26, the fixed rate method pays 70 cents for every hour you genuinely work from home — and it's a bundle, not an electricity allowance. It covers electricity and gas, internet, mobile and home phone, and stationery and consumables (the stuff you use up, like ink and paper). Work 1,000 hours from home and that's a $700 deduction — an amount subtracted from the income you get taxed on — with your internet's work share already inside.

Claiming the rate plus your internet bill is double dipping: claiming the same cost twice. It's the most common work-from-home mistake, and exactly what the ATO's systems are tuned to spot.

If your internet, phone and power costs are chunky, skip the fixed rate entirely and use the actual cost method — claiming the work-use percentage of your real bills.

The work-use percentage is the honest fraction of your internet that's actually work: hours of work use against total household use, backed by a diary over a representative four-week period. If work accounts for 30% of the household's internet use, you claim 30% of the bill — about $324 a year on a $90-a-month plan. The trade: more records, but potentially a bigger claim once power, phone and internet are all itemised at their real cost.

Shared household, shared bill, smaller claim. If the internet is split between housemates or family, you can only claim your work share of your share of the bill. Four people splitting a $100 bill, with 40% work use of your quarter, is $10 a month — not $40.

The bill not being in your name isn't automatically fatal — what matters is that you actually pay your share and can show it, like a regular transfer to whoever holds the account. No contribution, no claim.

For most work-from-homers with ordinary bills, the 70c rate wins on effort and often on dollars: one hours log, zero bill-splitting, done. The actual cost method starts winning when your real costs are high — expensive internet you barely share, big power bills, hefty phone use — and your work percentages are strong. Heavy users with a dedicated office can beat the fixed rate by hundreds.

You can't mix methods within a year for these running costs, but you can switch between years. The pro move: keep bills and a four-week usage diary for one year, calculate both methods at tax time, and claim whichever is bigger.

Using the 70c work-from-home rate? Your internet is already claimed — stop there. Skipping the rate? Claim your work percentage of your share of the bill, with a four-week diary and the bills to prove it.

Either way, run your hours and bills through our Deduction Estimator before you lodge.