Travel between hospitals: what nurses can claim

The short answer

Nurses can claim the cost of travelling directly between two workplaces on the same day, but not the ordinary trip between home and their regular workplace. That includes driving between hospital campuses for the same employer, or from a hospital job to a second job. Travel in the course of your work, such as community visits to patients' homes or a trip to an off-site course, can also be deductible.

The ATO's test is whether the trip is part of performing your work or simply gets you to work. You also need to have paid the cost yourself without reimbursement, and you need records to support the claim.

Home to your regular workplace is private

Your regular workplace is where you normally start and finish work for your employer, and you can have more than one. The trip between home and a regular workplace is private in almost every case, however inconvenient it is.

• You start at 6.30 am, finish a late shift or work nights.
• You live a long way from the hospital, or there is no public transport at your shift times.
• You are on standby and get called in. The ATO uses a registered nurse on standby as its example.
• You carry your uniform, stethoscope or work bag. The exception for bulky equipment only applies when the items are essential, awkward and heavy enough to need a vehicle, and there is no secure storage at work.
• You go home and come back more than once in a day, or do small work tasks on the way.

Travelling between two workplaces on the same day

The ATO's nursing guidance allows car expenses when you drive directly between separate jobs on the same day, as long as neither workplace is your home. Its example is a nurse going from a ward job to a second job as a personal care worker. It also allows travel between hospitals or medical facilities for the same employer on the same day.

The word "directly" matters. Say you finish a morning shift at a public hospital and drive straight to an afternoon agency shift. That trip can be claimed, but the drive from home to the first job and from the second job back home are both private. If you go home between the two shifts, both legs become ordinary home-to-work trips.

Community, district and home care nurses

Nurses who visit patients in their homes usually have the strongest travel claims. The ATO's nursing guide gives travelling from home directly to a patient's home to provide care as an example of a deductible trip to an alternative workplace. Trips between patients' homes during the day are travel in the course of your work.

If you start and finish each day at a community health centre or aged care base, the trip from home to that base is normally private. Your travel from the base to patients, between patients and back to the base is claimable.

Some nurses have no fixed base at all. They regularly visit several sites before returning home, and travel is a fundamental part of the job. The ATO calls this itinerant work, and it can make the trips from and to home deductible too. Whether you meet that test depends on your pattern of work, so check before claiming your first and last trips each day.

Alternative workplaces, courses and agency shifts

An alternative workplace is somewhere you do your work that is not your usual place. For example, you might be sent to another campus for a day to cover a shortfall, or attend work-related training off site. Travel between home and an alternative workplace can be claimed. In the ATO's example, an emergency nurse drives from the hospital to a seminar after his shift and then home, and can claim both legs.

An alternative workplace can become a regular one. If you are rostered at the second campus every Friday, it is a regular workplace on Fridays, and the trip from home is private.

Agency nurses often work somewhere different each shift, but usually one site per day. The ATO's example of a relief teacher sent to one school a day shows that this is generally ordinary home-to-work travel, not itinerant work. Our agency nurse guide covers the other deductions agency work brings.

• Agency nurse tax deductions

How to work out your car claim

If you own or lease the car, you can use one of two methods. The cents per kilometre method is 88 cents per work-related kilometre for 2025–26, up to 5,000 km per car. You don't need fuel receipts, but you do need to show how you worked out your work kilometres and that you own the car. The rate covers all running costs, including fuel, registration, insurance and depreciation, so you can't claim those on top. The ATO has set 91 cents for 2026–27.

The logbook method lets you claim the work-use percentage of your actual car costs. You need a logbook covering at least 12 continuous weeks that is representative of your travel, odometer records, and receipts for your car expenses. A logbook can be used for 5 years unless your circumstances change, for example you change jobs or move house.

If your car is under a novated lease or salary sacrifice arrangement, you can't use either method because you don't own or lease the car. You can still claim parking and tolls you pay on work trips. Taxi, ride-share and public transport costs between workplaces can also be claimed.

• Example: a nurse drives 18 km directly between two campuses of her employer twice a week for 44 weeks. 18 x 2 x 44 = 1,584 km, x 88 cents = $1,393.92 under the cents per kilometre method.

• Can nurses claim parking on tax?

Reimbursements and allowances

If your employer reimburses you for a trip, you can't claim that trip. A car or kilometre allowance is different. It is paid as part of your income, usually shown on your income statement, and must be included in your return. You may then claim eligible work trips under one of the car methods. Receiving an allowance doesn't automatically mean you have a deduction. If you aren't sure whether you were paid an allowance or a reimbursement, check your payslips or ask your payroll team.

Records to keep

Car expenses sit outside the $300 written-evidence threshold that applies to other work expenses. They have their own record rules instead, depending on the method you use. Keep your records for 5 years from the date you lodge. Logbook and odometer records must be kept for 5 years after the end of the latest income year you rely on them.

• A diary, logbook or myDeductions entry for each work trip: date, start and end addresses, kilometres and purpose, such as "Campus A to Campus B, afternoon ward shift".
• Your roster, to link each trip to a shift.
• Evidence that you own or lease the car.
• For the logbook method: the 12-week logbook, odometer readings and receipts for fuel, servicing, registration, insurance and other costs.
• Parking and toll receipts, and details of any reimbursement or allowance.

Common mistakes

• Claiming the daily commute because of early, late or on-call shifts.
• Claiming both legs of a split day when you went home between jobs.
• Estimating kilometres at tax time with no diary or roster to back them up.
• Adding fuel or servicing on top of a cents per kilometre claim.
• Using car expense methods for a novated lease car.
• Claiming trips your employer reimbursed.

• Nurse tax deductions 2025–26: the full guide

Common questions

Can I claim the drive to a compulsory training day at another hospital?

Usually yes, if that hospital is an alternative workplace and not one of your regular ones. The trip from home or from your usual hospital to the training, and back, can be claimed.

I work at two hospitals for different employers. Is the drive between them deductible?

Yes, when you travel directly from one job to the other on the same day. The first trip from home and the last trip home remain private.

Do I need a logbook to use cents per kilometre?

No. You need a record showing how you worked out your work kilometres, such as a diary, and evidence that you own the car. A logbook is only required for the logbook method.

Can I claim more than 5,000 km?

Not under the cents per kilometre method, which is capped at 5,000 work kilometres per car. If you travel more for work, the logbook method may suit you better, but it needs a valid logbook and receipts.