Australian tax · FY2022-23

Cents per km calculator

For 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023 the ATO rate is 78c per work-related kilometre, capped at 5,000 km per car — a maximum claim of $3,900.00. Enter your kilometres and this works out the deduction, and tells you when the cap is costing you money.

Calculator

One car. Each car has its own cap.
Kilometres you can claim5,000
Deduction at 78c/km$3,900.00

1,200 km are over the 5,000 km cap and earn nothing here. Past the cap the logbook method — business-use percentage of your actual running costs, supported by a twelve-week logbook — is usually worth more.

This is an estimate, not advice. It applies the published rate to what you enter; whether the method suits your circumstances, and whether your records support the figures, is a question for your tax agent.

What the 78c already covers

The rate is every running cost rolled into one number. Use this method and you cannot also claim any of these:

  • Fuel and oil
  • Servicing, repairs and tyres
  • Registration and insurance
  • Decline in value of the car
  • Lease or interest costs on the car

Where this method does not reach

  • A motorcycle, or a vehicle carrying one tonne or more, or nine or more passengers
  • More than the capped kilometres — the excess earns nothing under this method
  • A car you do not own or lease, or that is not used for work

You still have to show how you got the kilometres

This method needs no full logbook, but the number is not a guess you write down in October. You need a reasonable basis for it — a diary of work trips, a pattern of regular travel, or an app — and you need to be able to explain it if asked.

Home to work is not business travel. That is the trip most often counted by mistake, and it is the one the ATO looks for.

Worked example

6,200 work-related kilometres in a year, at 78c, looks like $4,836.00 — but the cap stops the claim at 5,000 km, so the deduction is $3,900.00. The 1,200 km above the cap are worth nothing under this method, which is exactly when a logbook starts paying for itself.

Preparing returns, not just your own?

BeforeMay builds the working paper behind the return. It is finished before you open it — a real Excel workbook, every figure GST-checked, mapped to its ATO item, and one click from the page it was read from.

Start a case freeWhere does client data go?

Three returns free. No card.

Other calculators

All calculators →