Can I claim AirPods or headphones on tax?

Potentially, for the supported work-use portion. AirPods are a brand of headphones; the relevant question is whether you incur the cost and use the equipment to perform employment duties. We apply the ATO’s general equipment rules here, rather than suggesting the ATO approves a particular model. ATO: equipment eligibility.

General information for Australian employees. Official sources checked 6 September 2026. Check the rules for your claim year and ask a registered tax agent where your circumstances need individual advice.

Explain what the headphones do for your work

Using a headset for client calls or required online meetings gives you a concrete work purpose to examine. Listening to music for personal enjoyment while working does not, by itself, establish that the listening is work use.

Keep a representative usage record separating calls or other employment tasks from commuting, workouts and personal listening. Record any employer payment. Owning the device and having a retail receipt do not prove the percentage.

The price and the work share answer different questions

Illustrative example: $240 headphones with a supported 60% work share give a $144 work-related cost. An immediate deduction still requires all the ATO’s tests, including mainly non-business income-producing use, and the set and similar-asset restrictions. A different work percentage can change that assessment. ATO: immediate-deduction tests.

If the equipment costs more than $300, review decline in value instead of treating the whole work share as an immediate deduction. Do not pick a depreciation life merely because a search result for sound-recording equipment uses a short period; check the asset’s actual use and appropriate treatment.

Keep a useful record in The Paper Keep

Save the original invoice in an Audio equipment for review category. Tag the headphone line item work-calls and private-use-review. Add a note stating the work purpose, the period covered by your usage record and any reimbursement.

For a receipt containing headphones, a case and a charger, review the items and how they relate to each other. Item tags help you revisit them; they do not decide whether an asset grouping is correct or reduce the receipt-based deductible total.

Use the estimator with its limits in mind

Keep equipment out of mapped phone or internet running-cost bills. If you enter a work asset in the WFH model, check the cost, work share and treatment independently: its at-or-below-$300 shortcut does not verify the other immediate-deduction tests.

The fixed rate’s covered usage expenses are different from eligible equipment costs. ATO: what is included in the fixed rate. Compare the phone guide if the purchase is part of a mobile bundle, and keep the tax working separate where the app cannot model the correct treatment.

Compare another item in our WFH expense guides.