Support worker tax return checklist for 2026

The pay does not stretch to match what the job asks of you. You cover the fuel between one client and the next, you keep your own gloves and sanitiser topped up, and your phone runs hot with roster changes you never get paid for. A lot of that is deductible, and a lot of it goes unclaimed, because a year of small out-of-pocket costs is impossible to reconstruct once the run is done and you finally sit down in July. This checklist is here so none of it slips by. One test runs under everything on it: you paid for the cost yourself, it was for your support work, and you kept a record of it.

First, a line that changes the rest. If you are paid wages with tax taken out before it hits your account, you are an employee and this checklist is written for you. If you invoice under your own ABN instead, you are a sole trader and the rules are different, so start with employed or sole trader to work out which you are.

Before you start, gather these

Ten quiet minutes now saves you guessing later. Pull together:

• Your income statement. Your provider finalises it in myGov, usually by mid-July, so wait for the "Tax ready" status before you lodge.
• Any agency or second-job income. If you pick up shifts through an agency or a second provider, each one pays and reports you separately, so check they are all showing.
• Your receipts for the year. The gloves, the masks, the non-slip shoes, the check renewals and anything else you paid for yourself.
• Your car records. A logbook, or a diary of the kilometres you drove between clients across the year.
• Your bank and card statements. Where the easy-to-miss direct debits show up, like a check renewal or your union fees.

The deduction checklist

Go through and tick what you paid for this year, and check there is a record beside each one, because a claim you cannot back with a receipt is a claim you cannot defend. Each category links to its own chapter for the detail.

What to leave off

Some things feel like they come with the job but are not claimable, and putting them in is what draws attention to a return:

• The commute. Home to your first client and back from your last, unless your work is genuinely itinerant.
• Everyday clothing and plain shoes. Ordinary clothes and footwear with no logo, even a set you keep for work.
• Meals and food on a shift. Your own coffee and snacks on a normal day, and anything you buy for a client to eat or drink.
• Anything already paid for you. Costs your employer or a client's NDIS plan reimbursed, and NDIS-funded items, are not yours to claim.
• The check or qualification that got you in. The first clearance or course you needed to start the job, though renewals are fine.

The records that back a support worker's claim

Here is where support workers quietly lose the most. Every claim rests on the record behind it: the ATO wants written proof of what you spent, and once your total work claims pass $300 you need it for all of them, not just the ones over the line.

The driving is the same story, a logbook or a running kilometre diary is what makes it stick, and neither can be pieced back together from memory months on. The ATO's free myDeductions app will cover the basics.

The bottom line

Go through this once before you lodge and the costs that usually disappear, the kilometres between clients, the box of gloves, the check on direct debit, the phone that never stops, are back on your return where they belong. Claim what you funded and can prove, drop the private costs, and you pay tax on what you genuinely owe. You give a lot to the people you look after, often for modest pay, so keep the share the year owes you.

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