Taxpayers continuing to work from home in the new year will be allowed to continue using the simplified working-from-home deduction method following a third extension by the ATO.

The 80¢ per hour shortcut method, introduced in April 2020 in response to COVID-19, will now be in place until 30 June 2021.

This is the third time the Tax Office has chosen to extend the shortcut method, after it was first due to expire at the end of the last financial year, then September 2020, and more recently, at the end of December 2020.

Conversely, the ATO’s updated Practical Compliance Guideline 2020/3 no longer states whether further consideration will be given to extend the latest end date.

The new extension comes as NSW continues to contain an outbreak of COVID-19 infections that began on the Northern Beaches a week before Christmas.

Victoria has since recorded new community transmission cases, with the state government now moving to push back plans for workers to return to the office from next Monday to a week later.

The temporary shortcut method will continue to be supplementary to the 52¢ fixed-rate method and the actual cost method of calculating running expenses, with taxpayers able to choose the appropriate method for their circumstances.

View the ATO’s updated PCG 2020/3 here.

Jotham Lian 
07 January 2021 
accountantsdaily.com.au