Jul 8, 20212 min read

Tax Deductions for Nurses & Midwives

For nurses, tax deductions are a great way to improve your tax refund. But keep your receipts to ensure you don’t miss out!

As a nurse, midwife or health professional, it’s common to purchase work-related items and pay for them yourself. And these out-of-pocket expenses are often valid tax deductions for nurses, and claimable on your next tax return.

We’ve covered a range of tax tips and tax deductions all nurses should read to boost your refund.

Common tax deductions for nurses and midwives

While each individual is different, the items below are usually classified as tax deductions for nurses. Remember, you’ll need to keep receipts and documentation for any expenses you claim.

Memberships and union fees: If you pay a membership fee to a nursing industry body or if you pay dues to a union, you can claim these costs.
Work Uniform: Health professionals often have specific clothing required for their job and often incur work uniform expenses. This clothing includes protective equipment, uniforms with a logo and laundering expenses for those items.
Stationery: This includes diaries, planners, log books, workbooks etc.
Computer/Laptop: If you have to use your personal computer or laptop for work, you can claim depreciation costs for these items (based on a percentage of legitimate work-related use, it’s best to contact a tax agent like GBS Accountants to work this out).
Mobile phone: You can claim a percentage of your mobile phone bill if you use your mobile for work related phone calls.
Subscriptions: Subscriptions to nursing magazines, books and journals used to keep your knowledge current are claimable.
Home office expenses: You can claim a percentage of costs such as internet and land-line if you have to work from home.

Nurses and midwives may be able to claim car expenses

In many cases, nurses are required to:

Transport patients
Travel between hospitals/medical practices during their shift
Travel from a hospital to a second job (or vice versa)

Therefore, these trips will generally qualify as tax deductions for nurses. Keep a logbook to ensure your claim is correct and remember that travel between home and work is not claimable.

If you’ve been reimbursed, don’t claim it.

Employers often reimburse staff for costs. And if this is the case for you, you can’t claim the expense as a tax deduction. Remember, legitimate ATO tax deductions for nurses only include expenses you’ve paid for yourself where you haven’t received a reimbursement. If your employer paid, don’t claim it. Especially because the ATO is remarkably good at detecting mistakes with this and you could be penalised later.

Nurses’ self-education expenses can be claimable

Self-education expenses are common, especially when you’re studying further for your role. This includes short courses (i.e. first aid courses, OH&S etc.) and qualifications such as a related degree. However, if you’re studying to get a new job or a first job as a nurse or midwife, education costs are not claimable.