WFH 70c rate in 2026-27: the records the ATO wants

Published 5 November 2026 · 4 min read

The ATO's fixed rate for working from home is 70 cents for every hour you work from home. The rate is the easy part. The part people get wrong is the paperwork: you need a record of your actual hours for the whole year, kept as you go, plus a bill for each type of cost the rate covers.

The rate for 2026-27

The fixed rate method is set out in the ATO's practical compliance guideline PCG 2023/1. Its rate table lists 67c an hour for 2022-23 and 2023-24, and 70c an hour from 1 July 2024. No later rate has been set, so 70c an hour applies to hours you work from home between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027. The ATO's own fixed rate page currently lists the rate by year only up to 2025-26, so it's worth a quick check of that page before you lodge in 2027.

What the 70c covers

The hourly rate is meant to cover the extra running costs of working at home, all bundled together:

• electricity and gas for heating, cooling, lighting and running your devices
• home and mobile internet or data
• mobile and home phone use
• stationery and computer consumables, such as printer ink and paper

Because the rate covers those costs in full, you can't claim any of them again on top. That includes your mobile phone, even if you also use it for work away from home. What you can still claim separately is the decline in value of equipment and furniture you use for work, such as a laptop, monitor or desk, and repairs to them.

The hours record: the whole year, kept as you go

Since 1 March 2023, the ATO wants a record of the actual hours you worked from home for the entire income year. The old four-week sample diary is gone for this method. An estimate for the year won't be accepted, and neither will a few weeks' hours scaled up to the full year.

The record can take almost any form, as long as you keep it at the time rather than rebuilding it in June. PCG 2023/1 gives these as examples:

• timesheets or rosters
• logs of the time you were signed in to your employer's systems
• a time-tracking app
• a diary or similar document kept as you go

A simple habit works: at the end of each work-from-home day, write down the date and the hours. A calendar entry, a spreadsheet row or the hours log in our calculator all do the job.

The bills: one for each type of cost

You also need at least one record for each type of running cost covered by the rate that you actually pay. If you pay for electricity, internet and a mobile plan, keep one electricity bill, one internet bill and one phone bill from the year. If you bought printer ink, keep one receipt. You don't need every bill for the rate itself, but you do need to show you actually had each cost.

Worked example

Example figures only. Sam works from home three days a week, eight hours a day, for 46 weeks of the year. Sam's diary shows:

• 3 days × 8 hours = 24 hours a week
• 24 hours × 46 weeks = 1,104 hours for the year
• 1,104 hours × $0.70 = $772.80

Sam can add the work share of the decline in value of a laptop and desk on top of that, but not the phone or internet bills. If Sam's diary only covered a sample month, the ATO could refuse the fixed rate claim, so the diary has to run all year.

How long to keep everything

In most cases, keep your hours record and bills for five years from the date you lodge your tax return. For equipment you claim decline in value on, keep the purchase records and evidence of work use for five years from your last claim.

Fixed rate or actual cost?

The fixed rate is the simpler option. The actual cost method can give a bigger deduction if your running costs are high, but it needs much more detailed records of what you spent and how much of it was for work. If your hours are modest and your bills are normal, the fixed rate is usually the less painful choice. Compare both if you're unsure.