Chef tax return checklist for 2026

For a chef or cook on wages, a refund is stitched together from a year of small costs you carried yourself: the knife you replaced, the roll you sent out for sharpening, the whites you rinsed most nights, the food-safety renewal, the union fee skimmed off your pay before it ever reached you. None of it puts itself back together in July. Below is a plain run-through to work down before lodging, so what is genuinely yours gets claimed and what would draw scrutiny gets left off.

Your money paid for it, it served the cooking, no reimbursement came back, and the proof exists.

Income and tips to declare

Begin with what comes in, not what goes out. Square the income away first and the deductions rest on firm ground.

Every dollar of wages, cash included. Your income statement shows up in myGov, usually by mid-July. Hold off until it reads "Tax ready" before you lodge. Any pay handed to you in cash still counts and still has to go on.
Your tips, in every form. Cash tips, a slice of the tronc, or tips paid out through the venue are all taxable income. If they are missing from your income statement, you enter them yourself before you lodge.

Knives and kit you paid for

For most cooks the knife roll is the heaviest single line, and the one that gets misjudged both ways.

$300 or less

Straight off in the year you buy it. A single knife, a thermometer or a peeler under the mark comes off whole.

Over $300

Written down as it declines in value across its working life, so a premium chef's knife still comes off, only in slices. A roll bought as one set above $300 depreciates together.

Sharpening, honing, repairs, the steel or stone, the roll and any cover over your knives all come off whatever the $300 mark says.

Whites, checked pants and shoes

This is where the easily forgotten claims sit, and where plenty of what feels like work clothing quietly is not deductible.

Occupation-specific clothing you bought.Chef's whites, the jacket, the checked or houndstooth pants, the toque, the neckerchief and aprons are all distinctive to cooking, so buying and replacing them comes off.

Non-slip shoes and protective gear.Footwear bought to grip a greasy floor is protective, and so are the heat-protection aprons and mitts you fund yourself.

Washing the deductible gear.Laundering your whites and checked pants comes off at a set rate: a per-load figure for a work-only wash, a lower one when it goes in with everything else. A modest total needs no written proof, though you still show your working. Dry-cleaning goes on the receipts.

The catch on plain clothes: plain black pants, a plain black top and ordinary shoes are conventional clothing and never come off, even under an "all black" rule the venue enforces. Washing them is out as well.

Travel and overtime meals

Between venues, not the commute.Driving venue to venue the same day, on to a second cheffing job, or out to an off-site event comes off by cents per kilometre or a logbook. Home to your regular kitchen and back is private, knives or no knives.

Overtime meals, only with the allowance.Where the award pays you a genuine overtime meal allowance, shown as income, and you buy a meal on overtime, you can claim up to the ATO's reasonable figure. An ordinary meal on a normal shift is private.

Certificates, fees and study

Renewals, not the first card.Renewing the food-safety certificate your role needs comes off. The first one, bought to get hired, does not. An RSA only counts where your role also serves alcohol.

Union and association dues, even off your pay.Still deductible when they are skimmed from your wages before you ever see them. Pull the year-to-date total off your last payslip, since being out of sight is exactly why this one slips past people.

Your phone, at the work share.The work slice of your phone where rosters and shift swaps really come through it, sized from a typical fortnight or two instead of a guessed figure.

Study tied to your current role.Course fees, textbooks and stationery for a cuisine, pastry or knife-skills course that lifts the cooking you do now. For apprentices, self-funded TAFE counts because you are employed in the kitchen while you learn.

What to leave off

They can feel like part of the job, yet the ATO rules them out, and listing them is what pulls a return into the light:

The home-to-venue commute. Private, on a split shift, after a midnight finish, and with the knife roll on the seat beside you.
Plain and "all black" clothing. Plain black pants, plain black tops and ordinary shoes, and the cost of washing them.
Anything supplied or reimbursed. Knives, whites or kit the venue gave you outright or repaid. With no cost left on you, there is nothing to put down.
Your first qualification. The cookery course or apprenticeship that got you into the trade, and the food-safety card you first bought to be hireable.
Staff feeds and shift coffee. A meal on a normal shift and the coffees that carry you through it are private.
The instant asset write-off. A concession for ABN businesses, capped at a level the ATO fixes, and shut to employees. Your version is the $300 mark: below it, straight off; above it, decline in value.

The records that hold a claim up

Each line above lives or dies on the proof under it. The ATO sets a plain bar: hold written proof for whatever you claim, and once your work claims total more than $300, keep records for the whole lot, not merely the part above the mark. The expensive knife is never the one that catches you out. It is the steady drip of small costs across the year, the sharpening invoices, the fresh neckerchief, the union fee off your pay, the loads of whites through the wash, that nobody keeps a shoebox for.

Knife, kit and clothing receipts for anything you bought and were not reimbursed for.
A logbook or a diary of kilometres where you claim driving between venues.
Your last payslip for the union total to date, plus any payslip that shows an overtime meal allowance.
Renewal notices for certificates and courses that attach to the role you hold now.
A record of loads washed each week worked, standing behind the laundry claim.

PFO+ Tax

PFO+ Tax matches every receipt, renewal notice and kilometre to its claim while the year unfolds, fully encrypted and held in Australia, so the list here is settled well before you sit down to lodge.

See the Tax Pack →

The bottom line

A single pass down this list catches the money that usually vanishes: the knives and sharpening, the whites and checked pants, the non-slip shoes, the union fee off your pay, the kilometres between venues. Put down all your income and every tip, claim only what you paid for and can back up, and leave the commute, the plain black clothing and the staff meal exactly where they sit. You spend real money staying equipped and qualified on the line. This is how you get it back.

Add up your deductions

See what your knives, whites, travel between venues and the rest add up to on your return.

Deductions calculator →

General information only, not tax advice. Check the ATO or a registered tax agent for your situation.