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WFH deduction estimator

For Australian users: estimate your work-from-home deduction under both ATO methods — fixed rate and actual cost — from the receipts you already keep.

The WFH Estimator page comparing the fixed rate and actual cost methods, with running-cost bills and work assets tables
The WFH Estimator — both methods side by side, with the better one badged as your best estimate.

Opening the estimator

Go to Summary and click the WFH estimate tile, or open /summary/wfh directly. Use the tax-year selector at the top-right to switch years.

The estimator is available when your account country is set to Australia (see Settings). It works in AUD and follows the ATO's rules for the selected financial year.

Set up your details

Expand "Edit hours and work-use percentages" and fill in:

Days per week at home / Hours per day / Weeks worked
Together these give your total hours worked from home for the year — the basis of the fixed-rate method.
Work-use percentages
For electricity & gas, internet, phone, and consumables — the share of each bill that relates to work. Only the actual-cost method uses these.

Click Save details. Your details are saved per financial year, so past years keep their own numbers.

The two methods

Fixed rate
Your hours × the ATO cents-per-hour rate (70c from FY 2024/25; 67c for FY 2022/23–2023/24), plus the decline in value of work assets. The rate covers electricity, gas, internet, phone, and consumables — those bills can't also be claimed separately under this method.
Actual cost
Your work-use percentage of the actual bills The Paper Keep has for each expense kind, plus asset decline in value. Requires records showing how you calculated each percentage.

Both totals are always shown; the higher one is badged Best estimate and becomes the headline figure.

Feeding bills into the actual-cost method

  1. Map categories to expense kinds — expand "Map categories to expense kinds" and assign your categories (e.g. Utilities) to a kind: Electricity & gas, Internet, Phone, or Stationery & consumables. Every AUD receipt in a mapped category counts toward that kind's bills.
  2. Fine-tune individual receipts — expand "Review bills" to reassign a single receipt to a different kind, or exclude it entirely, without changing its category.

Only AUD receipts are counted — foreign-currency bills are flagged and left out of the estimate.

Work assets — decline in value

Laptops, monitors, desks, and chairs are claimed as decline in value rather than running costs — and that claim applies on top of either method.

  1. Click Add asset in the Work assets section — or use "Track as work asset" on a receipt (or a line item) to prefill from the purchase.
  2. Enter the cost, purchase date, and work-use percentage, then pick a type preset (laptop, monitor, chair…) or a custom effective life.
  3. Choose Diminishing value or Prime cost. Assets costing $300 or less are claimed in full in the purchase year automatically.

The table shows each asset's opening value and this year's claim, with the total feeding both method cards.

The estimator is an estimate only, not tax advice. Check ato.gov.au or your accountant before claiming, and keep the records each method requires.