Those days at the kitchen bench still burn your power, your internet and your phone. The fixed rate method turns every one of those hours into a deduction, as long as your records hold up.
Checked against ATO guidance, July 2026. 70¢ per hour worked from home (fixed rate); one record of your actual hours, kept all year; two methods — fixed rate or actual cost, pick what pays.
For every hour you genuinely work from home, you claim 70 cents. That one rate bundles up electricity, gas, internet, your mobile and home phone, stationery and printer ink. You cannot claim any of those separately on top of it, even the phone you also use on site.
The maths is friendly. Two days a week at home for a year is roughly 750 hours, which is about $525 back without collecting a single utility bill breakdown.
Covered by the 70 cents: electricity and gas; internet, mobile and home phone; stationery and printer ink. Claim separately on top: the decline in value of your desk, chair and monitor; repairs to your office equipment; cleaning, if you have a dedicated home office.
This is where most claims fall over. You need a record of your actual hours, kept as you go, for the whole year. A diary, a roster, timesheets or an app all work. What does not work is a guess in July, or a “typical week” multiplied by 48. The ATO stopped accepting estimates in 2023.
You also need to keep one bill for each type of cost the rate covers, like one electricity bill and one phone bill, to show you actually paid for them.
The alternative is claiming the work share of your real bills: the exact portion of electricity, internet, phone and the rest that your work used. It means far more paperwork, and it usually only wins if your home office costs are unusually high. Most people are better off on the fixed rate.
Where Nomo fits: Nomo logs your home hours at the 70 cent rate with a daily reminder you can switch on. By July the full year record already exists, exactly the way the ATO wants it.
General information only, not tax advice. Rules change and everyone’s situation is different, so check ato.gov.au or talk to a registered tax agent before you lodge. Nomo is a record keeping tool and does not lodge returns.