Keep a 4-week diary of hours, apply it to your bills, and see an indicative annual amount. For Australian employees. Not tax advice.
The working-from-home fixed rate already includes phone and data for the hours you claim that way. Don't count those hours again.
This is an indicative estimate. It is not tax advice, not an ATO calculation, and not a figure to copy into a return on its own. You still need a reasonable basis for your own household, the bills, and the income year you are lodging.
Private use is not deductible. Pay television and streaming are usually private. Seeking work on your phone or internet is not a deduction for employment income you have not earned yet.
The percentage is hours. Add the hours you used the phone or the internet for work across four continuous weeks, and divide by the total hours that service was used in the same period — your private use and anyone else in the household. The ATO describes that 4-week record as a pattern you can apply to the rest of the income year when it represents your usual work. Another basis the ATO accepts is data: work downloads divided by the household's downloads. This page uses time.
Phone and internet are worked out on their own, then added. A monthly figure is multiplied by 12. The indicative annual amount is that yearly bill times the work-use percentage. If a month was leave and you did not use the service for work, leave that month out of the yearly total you enter. A bundled bill needs a split first: enter the phone portion and the internet portion, not pay television or streaming you do not use for work.
The income year does not change the multiplication. It is there so the fixed-rate and standard-deduction notes match the year you have in mind. For 2024–25 and 2025–26 the ATO fixed rate for working from home is 70 cents an hour, and that rate already includes home and mobile phone usage and home and mobile internet or data. Hours you put in the "at home" fields are taken out of this estimate. The ATO's published example goes further: if you use the fixed rate, you cannot claim a separate deduction for phone or internet at all, including use on days you are not at home. To claim the actual phone and internet cost, you use the actual costs method for working from home instead. The split on this page is a guide so the overlap is visible. It is not a ruling.
For 2026–27, check the current fixed rate on the ATO site before you rely on 70 cents. If you choose the standard deduction instead of claiming your work-related expenses, a phone or internet claim reduces that standard deduction dollar for dollar. This page does not calculate the standard deduction.
Read the ATO pages for home phone and internet expenses and the fixed rate method. Everything here runs in your browser. Your last set of figures is remembered on this device and never leaves it.
