Tax Deductions for Doctors in Australia: What You Can and Can't Claim

The ATO publishes an occupation-specific guide for doctors that spells out exactly what work-related expenses you can and can't claim. This page maps that guidance category by category, with the figures and thresholds that apply for the current income year. It's written for employee (PAYG) doctors — interns, RMOs, registrars and salaried staff specialists.

This is general information mapped to the ATO's published guidance, not personal tax advice. Your circumstances change what applies — see a registered tax agent for your own return. All figures are from the ATO occupation guide for doctors (QC 56091, last updated 11 May 2026) and the linked ATO rate pages; check the sources for the current year before you lodge.

The three tests every claim has to pass

The ATO applies the same three conditions to every work-related deduction, and the doctor guide is just these rules applied to medical work:

• You spent the money yourself and weren't reimbursed. If your employer paid for it — indemnity, a course, a conference flight — you can't also claim it.
• The expense directly relates to earning your income. There has to be a real connection to your current duties, not your career in general or a future job.
• You have a record. Usually a receipt; some categories have simplified rules (below).

Where an expense is part work and part private — a phone plan, a conference you tacked a holiday onto — you claim only the work-related portion and keep a reasonable basis for the split.

Professional memberships, AHPRA registration and college fees

This is the most reliable category for doctors, with one important line drawn through it.

• Professional association memberships — claimable. The guide is explicit: you can claim the cost of membership of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) or other medical professional associations. College membership and fees sit on the same footing where they relate to your current role.
• Annual registration renewal — claimable. Initial registration — not. You can claim the cost of renewing your annual practising certificate (which covers your annual AHPRA registration renewal) if you need it to work in your current job. But you can't claim the initial cost of first getting registered, because that expense lets you start earning income rather than being incurred while earning it. This same "to get the job vs while doing the job" line governs self-education below.

Medical indemnity insurance

Professional (medical) indemnity insurance that relates to your work is deductible. The only catch is the reimbursement rule: if your employer pays your indemnity premium, you can't claim it, because you haven't personally incurred the expense. Many hospitals cover indemnity for your public work, so check what you actually paid for out of your own pocket — for example cover for private, locum or additional work you carry yourself.

Self-education, CPD, conferences and courses

Self-education is deductible for doctors — but only on the right side of the ATO's line.

• Claimable when the study, course, seminar, conference or CPD maintains or improves the skills and knowledge you need for your current duties, or is likely to increase your income from your current employment.
• Not claimable when, at the time you incur it, it has no connection with your current job, relates only in a general way to it, or enables you to get or change employment. Study to move into a specialty you don't yet work in falls on the wrong side of this test.
• For a work-related conference or course you can claim registration, fares to attend, and — if you have to stay away overnight — accommodation and meals. Where a trip has a dual purpose (you added a holiday), you claim only the work-related portion.

Car and travel

This is where doctors most often get it wrong, because rostered and on-call work feels like it should make travel claimable. It usually doesn't.

Your commute is private — no exceptions for long distances or call-backs

Normal trips between home and your regular workplace are a private expense and can't be claimed, even if you live a long way from work or have to work outside normal business hours — weekends, early mornings, or being called back after hours to your regular hospital. Taking patient files or non-bulky records home with you doesn't convert the commute into a work trip either.

Trips you can claim

You can claim car expenses when you drive:

• directly between two separate jobs on the same day;
• between workplaces for the same employer on the same day — for example, from your consulting rooms to a hospital to do a list;
• from home directly to an alternative workplace that isn't your regular one.

On those genuinely work-related trips, related parking and tolls are also claimable (parking and tolls at your regular workplace are not).

The cents-per-kilometre rate

If you use the cents-per-kilometre method for a car you own or lease, the ATO rate is 88 cents per kilometre for both the 2024–25 and 2025–26 income years, capped at a maximum of 5,000 work-related kilometres per car. No receipts are needed for this method, but you must be able to show how you worked out your work kilometres. From 1 July 2026 (FY2026–27) the rate rises to 91 cents per kilometre — use the rate that matches the income year you're claiming for.

Novated-lease / salary-sacrificed car? You can't claim car expenses on it — you don't own or lease the car, your employer does. You can still claim associated work costs like parking and tolls on work trips. Don't use cents-per-kilometre on a novated-lease car. If you're weighing up a novated lease, see our salary packaging guide.

Overnight work travel

When your work requires you to travel and sleep away from home overnight, you can claim accommodation, meals and incidentals. If you're not required to stay overnight — say you fly interstate for a conference and come home the same day — those costs aren't deductible, and neither is anything your employer reimburses. The "reasonable amounts" the ATO will accept for meals and travel allowances without full receipts are set each year in a Tax Determination (TD 2025/4 for 2025–26), so check the current determination rather than relying on a fixed figure.

Tools, equipment and your professional library

Doctor-specific gear you buy yourself — stethoscopes, scales, a dermatoscope — is claimable, and so is insurance on that equipment. The amount you claim depends on cost:

• $300 or less: claim the full cost immediately, in the year you buy it.
• More than $300 (or a set of items that together cost more than $300): claim the decline in value (depreciation) over the item's effective life, rather than all at once.

The same rule covers your professional medical library and reference books. Note this $300 capital threshold is a different thing from the $300 record-keeping threshold in the next section — don't blur them.

Clothing, scrubs, uniforms and laundry

Conventional clothing is not deductible — even if your employer requires it. The suit or business attire a doctor wears to work is a private expense. What you can claim is:

• Protective clothing — scrubs, lab coats, and enclosed non-slip footwear worn to protect you at work;
• Occupation-specific clothing that distinctively identifies your profession;
• Compulsory uniforms, and registered non-compulsory uniforms.

A plain white lab coat on its own isn't treated as occupation-specific, because several professions wear one — the claim rests on it being protective or part of a genuine uniform.

Laundry for eligible work clothing is claimable at $1 per load if the load is only work clothing, or 50 cents per load if you mix in personal items. If your total laundry claim (excluding dry-cleaning) is $150 or less, you don't need to keep records of it.

Phone, internet and working from home

Phone, data and internet are claimable for the work-related portion of your own device use — reviewing results from home, taking work calls, remote CPD. If your work use is incidental and your total claim is $50 or less, you don't need detailed records.

For working from home, the simplest option is the ATO fixed rate of 70 cents per work hour for the 2024–25 and 2025–26 income years, which bundles your running costs (electricity, gas, phone, internet, stationery). Two things to watch:

• If you use the fixed rate, you can't separately claim phone or internet on top — they're already inside the 70c rate.
• As an employee you generally can't claim occupancy costs — rent, mortgage interest, rates, house insurance. Only additional running costs are claimable. Occupancy is only on the table if part of your home is a genuine place of business, which almost never applies to an employee doctor.

What you can't claim (the ATO's clear "no" list)

The doctor guide calls these out specifically. None of them are deductible for an employee doctor:

• Your commute between home and your regular workplace — including long distances and after-hours call-backs.
• The initial cost of getting registered or your first practising certificate.
• Pre-employment or career-change study that enables you to get or change jobs, or relates only generally to your current role.
• HECS/HELP (and other study-loan) repayments, and fees incurred under the HECS-HELP scheme.
• Conventional business attire, even where the employer mandates it.
• Anything your employer reimbursed or paid for directly.
• Car expenses on a novated-lease / salary-sacrificed vehicle (you don't own or lease it).
• Occupancy costs (rent, mortgage interest, rates) for working from home.

Records: the two different "$300" rules

There are two separate $300 thresholds in the ATO rules, and mixing them up is a common error:

• Capital $300 (equipment): an item costing $300 or less is an immediate deduction; more than $300 must be depreciated over its effective life. This is about a single item.
• Record-keeping $300 (total claim): if your total work-related expense claim is $300 or less, you can claim without full written evidence (receipts) — but you still need records showing you spent the money and how you worked out the amount. This $300 record rule does not apply to car, meal-allowance, award-transport-allowance or travel-allowance claims, which have their own substantiation rules.

Beyond those, keep receipts. The safest approach across a year is a running log of work purchases, your work-kilometre diary, and your working-from-home hours.

If you're a self-employed doctor

The ATO occupation guide above is the employee (PAYG) guide, and this page follows it. If you bill as a sole trader or contractor, or through a service/practice trust or company — which is common for GPs, VMOs and specialists in private practice — different rules apply. You're generally claiming business deductions, GST and car expenses work differently (business-use vs novated lease), and indemnity is a business expense rather than a personal work-related one. Treat the categories here as a map of what's typically work-related for a doctor, but get advice from a medical accountant on how they apply to your structure. To model your salaried take-home in the meantime, use the take-home pay calculator, and see the salary packaging guide for the pre-tax benefits available to hospital employees.

FAQ

Can doctors claim their AHPRA registration and college fees as a tax deduction?

Yes for renewals, no for the initial registration. The ATO doctor guide states you can claim the cost of renewing your annual practising certificate (which covers annual AHPRA registration renewal) "if you need it to work in your current occupation," but "you can't claim the initial cost of getting your practicing certificate … [because] you incur the expense to enable you to start your employment, not while earning your income." College membership fees and fees to a medical professional association (e.g. the AMA) are deductible on the same self-improvement/current-employment basis as association memberships. Source: ATO, Medical professional expenses A–F (QC 56091).

Is medical indemnity (professional indemnity) insurance tax-deductible for doctors?

Yes. The ATO guide states: "You can claim a deduction for the cost of professional indemnity insurance that relates to your work activities." The one exception: if your employer pays the premium, you can't claim it because you haven't incurred the expense. Source: ATO, Medical professional expenses P–S (QC 56091).

Can I claim the drive between home and the hospital, or my parking there?

No — normal trips between home and your regular workplace are private, "even if you live a long way from your usual … workplace [or] must work outside normal business hours (for example, weekends or early morning shifts)," and this includes call-backs to your regular workplace. Parking and tolls at or near a regular workplace are also not deductible. But you CAN claim car trips between two jobs on the same day, between your consulting rooms and a hospital, or from home to an alternative (non-regular) workplace — and parking/tolls on those work-related trips. Source: ATO, Medical professional expenses A–F and P–S (QC 56091).

What is the car cents-per-kilometre rate and how many kilometres can I claim?

For both the 2024–25 and 2025–26 income years the ATO rate is 88 cents per kilometre, capped at a maximum of 5,000 work-related kilometres per car. This method needs no receipts, but you must be able to show how you worked out your work-related kilometres and that you own/lease the car. (Note: the rate rises to 91 cents per km from 1 July 2026 for FY2026–27.) Source: ATO, Cents per kilometre method.

Can doctors claim self-education, courses and conferences — and are HECS/HELP repayments deductible?

Self-education, seminars, conferences and CPD are deductible when they "maintain or improve the skills and knowledge you need for your current duties" or are likely to increase your current income — but NOT where the study "enables you to get employment or change employment." Crucially, repayments on study and training loans (HELP, HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP, VSL, etc.) are never deductible, and fees incurred under the HECS-HELP scheme are not deductible even when the course itself is. Source: ATO, Medical professional expenses P–S (QC 56091).

Can I claim scrubs, a stethoscope, or working-from-home costs?

Scrubs and lab coats are deductible as protective clothing (unlike conventional business attire, which isn't — even if your employer requires it). A stethoscope or scales costing $300 or less can be claimed outright in the year of purchase; equipment over $300 is claimed as decline in value over its effective life. For working from home, you can use the ATO fixed rate of 70 cents per work hour (2024–25 and 2025–26) to cover running costs, but you can't also separately claim phone/internet already covered by that rate, and employees generally can't claim occupancy costs like rent or mortgage interest. Sources: ATO Medical professional expenses A–F, G–O, T–W (QC 56091) and Working from home — fixed rate method.

Sources & methodology

Every category and figure on this page is mapped to the ATO's occupation-specific guide "Doctor, specialist or other medical professionals — income and work-related deductions" (QC 56091, last updated 11 May 2026) and the ATO's rate and record-keeping pages. Rates and thresholds change each income year — the cents-per-kilometre and working-from-home rates in particular — so confirm the current figure against the ATO before you lodge. This guide covers employee (PAYG) doctors; self-employed doctors have different rules. Nothing here is personal tax advice; for your own return, see a registered tax agent.

• ATO — Doctor, specialist or other medical professionals: income and work-related deductions (QC 56091)
• ATO — Medical professional expenses A–F (AMA membership, practising certificate/registration, books, car, clothing)
• ATO — Medical professional expenses G–O (laundry, meals, medical equipment)
• ATO — Medical professional expenses P–S (phone/internet, indemnity insurance, professional library, self-education, seminars/conferences)
• ATO — Medical professional expenses T–W (tools & equipment, travel, working from home)
• ATO — Cents per kilometre method (car expenses; current rate 88c/km)
• ATO — Working from home: fixed rate method (current rate 70c per work hour)
• ATO — Records you need to keep ($300 total-claim written-evidence rule; $150 laundry rule)
• ATO — Doctor, specialist or other medical professional deductions (Tax Time toolkit PDF summary)