Nanak Accountants & Associates are registered tax agents (TPB 26113345) for sole trader subbies, apprentices on wages and trade businesses with staff. Every claim is checked against the ATO rules for tradies, from eight offices across Australia, in English, Punjabi, Hindi and Nepali.
Clients a Year
Tools, test equipment, licence renewals and vehicle claims checked against the ATO electrical services benchmark.
Ute and van costs, protective gear, GST on materials and TPAR for the subbies you pay.
Instant asset write-off on tools and trailers, contractor super and company or trust structures.
Sole trader returns, GST registration at $75,000, PAYG instalments and the PSI rules.
Everything a tradie needs, from your first ABN to a company with apprentices.
Sole trader and employee returns with tool, ute, clothing and licence claims checked against ATO rules.
Xero, QuickBooks or MYOB, receipts captured from your phone, subbie payments coded for TPAR.
GST registration at the right time, BAS prepared and lodged, PAYG instalments reviewed.
Single Touch Payroll, Payday Super within 7 business days and your TPAR lodged by 28 August.
The cost depends on whether you are an employee tradie, a sole trader on an ABN or a company or trust with staff, and on how much bookkeeping you want us to do.
At Nanak Accountants our fees are fixed and published on our pricing page, so you know the cost before we start.
The fee you pay a registered tax agent to manage your tax affairs is generally tax deductible in the year you pay it.
The ATO publishes specific guidance for tradies and checks claims in this industry closely. These are the areas where a tradie accountant makes the biggest difference.
The ATO compares your expenses to the benchmark for your trade and checks tool, vehicle and clothing claims.
Building businesses must report contractor payments by 28 August, and labour-only subbies can be owed super.
Register within 21 days of reaching $75,000 GST turnover, then lodge BAS and PAYG instalments on time.
Sole trader, company or trust: the personal services income rules decide whether incorporating saves tax.
Tradies have one of the most varied tax positions in Australia. The same person can be on wages one year, an ABN subbie the next and running a company with apprentices the year after. Each step changes what you can claim, when GST starts, whether you lodge a TPAR and how super is paid.
The ATO publishes specific guidance for tradies and for building and construction workers, and it checks claims in this industry closely. Everything below comes from those ATO pages, the ATO small business benchmarks for plumbing, electrical and carpentry services, and the state revenue offices. Every figure was checked against those government pages on 12 October 2026.
This page gives a tradie direct answers: what you can claim, what you cannot, which registrations start at which turnover, and what an accountant for tradies actually does for you. If you would rather talk it through, call 1300 626 258 or book a free 15-minute call with a registered tax agent.
Key takeaways for tradies
This table is drawn from the ATO’s Tradies: be certain about what you can claim page and its building and construction employees guide. Sole trader tradies follow the same logic under the ATO’s three golden rules for business deductions: the expense must be for the business, you claim only the business share, and you must have the records.
| Expense | Claimable? | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Tools and equipment | Yes | $300 or less: immediate deduction. Over $300, or a set worth more than $300: decline in value. Not if your employer supplied or reimbursed them. |
| Instant asset write-off (business tradies) | Yes | Aggregated turnover under $10 million: each asset costing less than $20,000, first used or installed ready for use on or after 1 July 2023, permanent from 1 July 2026. The full cost, not just the business share, must be under the limit. |
| Protective clothing: steel-capped boots, hi-vis, helmets, safety glasses | Yes | Must protect you from a real and likely risk of injury at work. Repairs and cleaning are also claimable. |
| Conventional clothing: jeans, drill shirts, shorts, closed shoes | No | Everyday clothing is private even if worn only on site. |
| Sunscreen, sunhat, sunglasses | Yes | Only if your work keeps you in the sun for extended periods. Sunscreen needs an AUST L number. Apportion private use. |
| Laundry of protective clothing | Yes | $1 per work-only load, 50 cents if mixed. No written records needed up to $150. |
| Home to work travel | No (usually) | Private, even with long drives or early starts. Exception: bulky tools essential to the job, needing a vehicle to carry, with no secure storage on site. Carrying them by choice is not enough. |
| Travel between job sites | Yes | Between two jobs on the same day, or to a site that is not your regular workplace. 91c per km for 2026-27 (max 5,000 km) or logbook. |
| Ute or van carrying one tonne or more | Yes | Not a “car”, so cents per km does not apply. Claim the work share of actual costs (fuel, rego, insurance, servicing, depreciation) with receipts for each. |
| Phone, data and internet | Yes | Work share only. Claims over $50 need an itemised bill and a record of work use. |
| Licences, tickets and permits | Partly | Renewals you need for current work (forklift, heavy vehicle permit) yes. Getting a licence to land a job no. Your driver’s licence never. |
| Union and association fees | Yes | Your income statement can serve as evidence. |
| Courses and self-education | Partly | Yes if it maintains or improves skills for your current work. No if it gets you a new job. HECS-HELP repayments are not deductible. |
| Meals on site | No | Food during normal hours is private. Overtime meals only with an award overtime meal allowance declared as income. |
| Parking, tolls and fines | Partly | Parking and tolls on work trips yes. Parking at your regular site and commute tolls no. Fines never. |
| Quoting and admin from home | Yes | Fixed rate of 70 cents per work hour for 2025-26, covering phone, internet and power. You need a record of actual hours. |
From the 2026-27 income year, employee tradies can also take a standard deduction of up to $1,000 with no receipts (the Government calls it the $1,000 instant tax deduction; it became law on 26 June 2026). It applies only to wages and similar labour income, not ABN business income, and itemised tool, uniform and car claims reduce it dollar for dollar, so most tradies with real tool and vehicle costs still do better itemising.
Not sure what you can claim? A registered tax agent can check your tools, ute and clothing claims before you lodge. Call 1300 626 258 or send us your question.
Most tradies should start as a sole trader and move to a company or trust only when income, risk or staff numbers justify the cost. A sole trader pays individual rates on profit: for 2026-27 that is nil to $18,200, 15% to $45,000, 30% to $135,000, 37% to $190,000 and 45% above, plus the 2% Medicare levy (ATO tax rates). With aggregated turnover under $5 million you also get the small business income tax offset of 16%, capped at $1,000 (ATO small business income tax offset).
A company pays a flat 25% as a base rate entity, otherwise 30% (ATO company tax rates), and it holds the contracts and the liability, which matters once you employ people or take larger jobs. A family trust can spread profit across family members, but every dollar is still taxed in someone’s hands, and directors remain personally exposed for unpaid PAYG withholding and super.
The personal services income (PSI) rules are the trap for subbies who incorporate. If more than 50% of a contract’s income is for your own skills and effort, the PSI rules can apply and a company gives no tax advantage. Most tradies pass the results test, because for at least 75% of their PSI they quote for a result, supply their own tools and must fix defects at their own cost (ATO results test). A subbie paid by the hour for one builder may not. Employing an apprentice for at least six months of the year also meets the employment test (ATO employment test). We run these tests before recommending a structure, then register the company or set up the family trust if it is the right call.
You must register for GST within 21 days of your GST turnover reaching $75,000 (ATO registering for GST). GST turnover is gross business income excluding GST, so a subbie invoicing $1,500 a week crosses it within the year. Once registered you add 10% to invoices, claim GST credits on tools, the ute, fuel and materials, and lodge a business activity statement.
Quarterly BAS is due 28 October, 28 February, 28 April and 28 July; monthly BAS is due on the 21st of the following month (ATO BAS due dates), with extra time through a registered agent. Some tradies register early to claim the GST credit on a new ute, which only pays off if your customers are mostly builders who claim GST themselves. Try our GST calculator for quotes and our GST registration service when it is time.
After your first return showing business income, the ATO moves you onto PAYG instalments if instalment income was $4,000 or more, tax payable $1,000 or more and notional tax $500 or more (ATO PAYG instalments). They sit on the BAS and can be varied after a quiet quarter.
Yes to TPAR if you are mainly in building and construction and pay subcontractors, yes to super for most labour-only subbies, and payroll tax only once wages pass your state’s threshold.
TPAR: if 50% or more of your income or activity is building and construction services, you have an ABN and you pay contractors for that work, every contractor payment must be reported by 28 August (ATO TPAR). The definition covers bricklaying, plumbing, electrical, roofing, excavation, site preparation, project management and wet hire of equipment with an operator.
Super: a contractor paid mainly for their labour is an employee for super guarantee purposes, ABN or not. The tests are a contract mainly for labour, payment for personal skills rather than a result, and no right to delegate (ATO super for contractors). The rate is 12% (ATO), and for earnings paid from 1 July 2026 Payday Super requires it to reach the fund within 7 business days of each payday, or 20 business days for a new worker’s first contribution (ATO Payday Super). Quarterly due dates are gone, so super runs with every pay. Our payroll service handles this for trade businesses.
Payroll tax starts when annual wages pass the state threshold. For 2026-27: $1,200,000 at 5.45% in NSW (Revenue NSW); $1,000,000 in Victoria, with the threshold phasing out between $3 million and $5 million (SRO Victoria); $1.3 million at 4.75% in Queensland (QRO); $1,000,000 at 5.5% in Western Australia (RevenueWA); and $1.25 million at 4% in Tasmania, rising to 6.1% above $2 million (SRO Tasmania). The labour part of payments to contractors can count as wages unless an exemption applies, such as services provided for 90 days or less in a year (Revenue NSW contractors), so a crew of subbies can push you over sooner than you expect.
The ATO publishes small business benchmarks for each trade from 2023-24 return data and uses them to spot businesses reporting outside the normal range (ATO small business benchmarks). The key ratio is total expenses to turnover:
A sparky reporting 95% expenses on $120,000 of turnover, or 20% of turnover in vehicle costs, sits outside these ranges and is more likely to hear from the ATO. We check your figures against your trade’s benchmark before lodging, and our business benchmarking service goes further for businesses that want to lift margins. For trade-specific claims, see our guides to tax deductions for electricians and tax deductions for plumbers.
Keep receipts or invoices for every claim for five years, in English or easily converted (ATO record keeping). The ATO’s tradie page says a receipt needs the amount, date, supplier and nature of the goods, and that a bank statement on its own is usually not enough.
For the vehicle, keep a 12-week logbook with odometer readings, or a record of work kilometres under the cents per kilometre method (ATO car expenses). For a one-tonne ute, keep every fuel, rego and service receipt. For quoting at home, keep a diary of hours. A receipt-scanning app linked to your bookkeeping does most of this for you.
Buy and install needed tools before 30 June, check the logbook, and pay super early enough to reach the fund. The instant asset write-off is claimed in the year the asset is first used or installed ready for use, so a $15,000 trailer ordered in June but delivered in July lands in the next year.
We also run through whether PAYG instalments should be varied after a slow quarter, whether your structure still suits you before 1 July, whether you have crossed or will cross the $75,000 GST threshold, and whether subbie payments have been reported for TPAR and super. Our tax planning service is a fixed-fee session with a written plan before year end, not a surprise bill in October.
Main sources: ATO, Tradies: be certain about what you can claim; ATO, Building and construction employees guide; ATO, Small business benchmarks. Other figures come from ATO business guidance and the NSW, VIC, QLD, WA and TAS state revenue offices.
Checked on 12 October 2026 against the ATO and state revenue office pages linked above. This is general information, not personal advice. Speak to a registered tax agent about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.
Tradies choose Nanak Accountants because we know the ATO rules for trade work and we explain them in plain English.
Registered tax agent (TPB 26113345) and ASIC registered agent, founded in 2020 and now serving more than 10,000 clients a year across eight offices in Craigieburn, Truganina, Cranbourne, Geelong, Tasmania, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth.
Our team works in English, Punjabi, Hindi and Nepali. We are a CPA Australia associate member, an IPA member firm and a QuickBooks ProAdvisor Elite practice, and in 2026 a finalist in the Australian Small Business Champion Awards, the Australian Accounting Awards and the Wyndham Business Awards.
You can lodge your own return, but a tradie accountant who knows the ATO’s trade rules usually finds claims you would miss and keeps you clear of the ones the ATO rejects. Tool depreciation, the bulky tools exception, one-tonne ute rules, GST timing and super for subbies are where a registered tax agent earns the fee, and the fee is deductible.
Tools and equipment, protective clothing and its laundry, sun protection for outdoor work, travel between job sites, the work share of phone and internet, licence renewals, union fees and relevant courses. Tools costing $300 or less are an immediate deduction. Business tradies can also use the $20,000 instant asset write-off and claim GST credits once registered.
Yes. Steel-capped boots, hi-vis vests, helmets, safety glasses and gloves are protective clothing and are deductible, along with washing and repairing them. Ordinary jeans, drill shirts, shorts and closed shoes are conventional clothing and are not deductible even if you only wear them on site.
Usually no. Driving from home to a regular site is private travel. The exception is carrying bulky tools that are essential to the job when there is no secure storage on site. Travel between two jobs on the same day is claimable at 91 cents per kilometre for 2026-27 (up to 5,000 km) or by logbook, and a ute carrying one tonne or more is claimed on actual costs.
Yes once your GST turnover reaches $75,000, and you must register within 21 days of hitting it. Below that it is optional. Registering early to claim the GST credit on a ute or major tool purchase can make sense if your customers are mostly builders who claim GST themselves.
Yes if you pay them mainly for their labour, they cannot delegate the work and they are paid for their time rather than a result, even with an ABN. The rate is 12% of labour payments, excluding materials and GST, and for earnings paid from 1 July 2026 it must reach their fund within 7 business days of payday.
Bring your last return and a rough idea of turnover and we will tell you what to claim, when GST starts and whether your structure fits.
Tradie accountants in Craigieburn, Truganina, Cranbourne, Geelong, Tasmania, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth.
