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Ian Hallett is a Chartered Accountant with over 15 years experience in public practice in Canberra, including over 3 years as a Senior Tax Manager with Ernst & Young. He commenced practice as Halletts in 1996 and is actively involved in tax and business development consulting. Ian also provides strategic and system-related advice to our clients.

Business travel rates 2008-09

The Tax Office has released the 2008-09 travel, accommodation and meal allowance rates.

When claiming travel allowance expenses and overtime meal allowance expenses the following key points must be remembered:

The claim must be allowable - A deduction claim cannot exceed the amount actually incurred for work-related purposes. The payment of an allowance does not of itself allow a deduction to be claimed.
An allowance must be paid - The substantiation exception only applies if the employee is paid an overtime meal allowance or a travel allowance. The allowance must have an identifiable connection with the nature of the expense covered.
For travel allowance expenses - The employee must sleep away from home.
The substantiation exception - Where the amount claimed is no more than the applicable reasonable amount, substantiation of the claim with written evidence is not required.
Claims in excess of reasonable amounts - If the amount claimed is more than the reasonable amount, the whole claim must be substantiated with written evidence, not just the excess.
Verification of reasonable claims
- In appropriate cases, where the substantiation exception is relied on, the employee may still be required to show:
- How they worked out their claim;
- An entitlement to a deduction (for example that work-related travel was undertaken);
- A bona fide travel allowance was paid; and
- If accommodation is claimed, that commercial accommodation was used.
The nature and degree of evidence will depend on the circumstances: for example the circumstances under which the employer pays allowances, the occupation of the employee, and the total amount of allowances received and claimed during the year by the employee.
Tax return treatment - Where a travel or overtime meal allowance which does not exceed the reasonable amounts is not shown on the payment summary, and it has been fully spent on deductible expenses, neither the allowances nor the expenses need be shown on the employee's tax return.

If an amount less than the allowance has been spent, the income tax return must include the allowance and the expense claimed.

Whenever a claim is made for overtime meal or travel allowance expenses the allowance must also be included in the tax return.

For a detailed listing of the ‘reasonable amounts’ as outlined by the Tax Commissioner see below Appendix.

Appendix: Business Travel Rates 2008-09

Reasonable amount for 2008-09

The reasonable amounts for daily travel allowance expenses, according to salary levels and destinations, for the 2008-09 income year are shown in Tables 1 to 5 as follows:

Table 1: Employee's annual salary - $90,000 or below
Place	Accomm. $	Food & drink $ B'fast 21.10 Lunch 23.65 Dinner 40.65	Incidentals $	Total $
Adelaide	145	85.40	15.90	246.30
Brisbane	198	85.40	15.90	299.30
Canberra	133	85.40	15.90	234.30
Darwin	159	85.40	15.90	260.30
Hobart	117	85.40	15.90	218.30
Melbourne	162	85.40	15.90	263.30
Perth	148	85.40	15.90	249.30
Sydney	183	85.40	15.90	284.30
High cost country centres	See Table 4	85.40	15.90	Variable - see Table 4
Tier 2 country centres (see Table 5)	106	B'fast 18.85 Lunch 21.55 Dinner 37.15	15.90	199.45
Other country centres	89	B'fast 18.85 Lunch 21.55 Dinner 37.15	15.90	182.45

Table 2: Employee's annual salary - $90,001 - $160,100
Place	Accomm. $	Food and drink $ B'fast 22.90 Lunch 32.45 Dinner 45.45	Incidentals $	Total $
Adelaide	155	100.80	22.70	278.50
Brisbane	228	100.80	22.70	351.50
Canberra	168	100.80	22.70	291.50
Darwin	170	100.80	22.70	293.50
Hobart	150	100.80	22.70	273.50
Melbourne	192	100.80	22.70	315.50
Perth	184	100.80	22.70	307.50
Sydney	200	100.80	22.70	323.50
High cost country centres	See Table 4	100.80	22.70	Variable - see Table 4
Tier 2 country centres (see Table 5)	127	B'fast 21.10 Lunch 21.55 Dinner 41.95	22.70	234.30
Other country centres	107	B'fast 21.10 Lunch 21.55 Dinner 41.95	22.70	214.30

Table 3: Employee's annual salary - $160,101 and above
Place	Accomm. $	Food & drink $ B'fast 25.00 Lunch 36.00 Dinner 57.30	Incidentals $	Total $
Adelaide	209	118.30	22.70	350
Brisbane	231	118.30	22.70	372
Canberra	216	118.30	22.70	357
Darwin	195	118.30	22.70	336
Hobart	195	118.30	22.70	336
Melbourne	265	118.30	22.70	406
Perth	275	118.30	22.70	416
Sydney	265	118.30	22.70	406
Country centres	$186, or the relevant amount in Table 4 if higher	118.30	22.70	Variable - see Table 4 if applicable

Table 4: High cost country centres - accommodation expenses
Country centre	$	Country centre	$
Ballarat (VIC)	116.00	Kalgoorlie (WA)	116.50
Bendigo (VIC)	122.00	Karratha (WA)	243.50
Broome (WA)	173.00	Kununurra (WA)	147.00
Burnie (TAS)	123.00	Launceston (TAS)	115.50
Cairns (QLD)	120.50	Mackay (QLD)	112.00
Carnarvon (WA)	133.00	Maitland (NSW)	108.00
Christmas Island (WA)	122.50	Mount Gambier (SA)	107.00
Cocos (Keeling) Islands	110.00	Mount Isa (QLD)	115.00
Dampier (WA)	158.50	Naracoorte (SA)	106.00
Derby (WA)	165.00	Newcastle (NSW)	116.50
Devonport (TAS)	115.50	Newman (WA)	150.00
Emerald (QLD)	106.00	Norfolk Island	108.00
Exmouth (WA)	173.50	Pt Hedland (WA)	247.00
Geraldton (WA)	116.00	Pt Lincoln (SA)	106.00
Gladstone (QLD)	111.00	Port Macquarie (NSW)	115.00
Gold Coast (QLD)	135.00	Thursday Island (QLD)	180.00
Halls Creek (WA)	132.00	Warrnambool (VIC)	113.00
Hervey Bay (QLD)	109.50	Weipa (QLD)	138.00
Horn Island (QLD)	139.00	Wilpena-Pound (SA)	135.00
Jabiru (NT)	190.00	Wonthaggi (VIC)	122.00
Kadina (SA)	107.00	Yulara (NT)	313.00

Table 5: Tier 2 country centres
Country centre	Country centre
Albany (WA)	Geelong (VIC)
Alice Springs (NT)	Horsham (VIC)
Bairnsdale (VIC)	Innisfail (QLD)
Bathurst (NSW)	Port Augusta (SA)
Bordertown (SA)	Portland (VIC)
Bright (VIC)	Renmark (SA)
Broken Hill (NSW)	Roma (QLD)
Bunbury (WA)	Orange (NSW)
Castlemaine (VIC)	Seymour (VIC)
Ceduna (SA)	Swan Hill (VIC)
Dalby (QLD)	Townsville (QLD)
Dubbo (NSW)	Wagga Wagga (NSW)
Echuca (VIC)	Whyalla (SA)
Esperance (WA)	Wollongong (NSW)

Overseas travel rates are also available. Contact this office should you need more information.

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