Highlights

  • From the 2026–27 income year, the rules around it have changed.
  • The $150 laundry limit, which let modest laundry claims be made without written evidence, was removed on 1 July 2026.
  • With 2025–26 returns due by 31 October under the old rules, workers now face a different calculation for the year already under way.
  • On those figures, roughly seven in every ten people who claimed work-related expenses made a clothing claim, making it one of the most widely used deductions in the system.

The $150 laundry limit ended on 1 July 2026. Under the new $1,000 standard deduction, a uniform-washing claim on its own may add nothing to your total, and claiming above $1,000 now means written evidence for everything. Washing a work uniform has long been one of the most common, and smallest, deductions in an Australian tax return.

Why laundry is a big-ticket item in aggregate

Individually, laundry claims are small. Collectively, work clothing is a substantial deduction category. The change comes from Schedule 4 of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026, which introduced a standard deduction for work-related expenses. The ATO's guidance says that from 1 July 2026, three record-keeping exceptions are removed for all taxpayers: the $300 limit for claims without records, the $150 laundry limit and the award transport expense exemption. In their place, eligible workers receive a standard deduction of up to $1,000. The ATO says it is applied automatically, starts with the 2026–27 income year and is not available for 2025–26 returns. The ATO's laundry shortcut remains. It allows $1 per load for a load containing only work clothes, or 50 cents per load where work and private clothes are washed together.

The catch: laundry eats into the $1,000

The standard deduction is the lower of $1,000 or total assessable labour income. Every dollar of labour-related work expenses claimed, including laundry, cuts it dollar for dollar until it reaches nil. In practice, that means a laundry claim on its own adds nothing to the total deduction for most workers. It only increases the total when itemised work expenses, laundry included, exceed $1,000. For a worker whose only work cost is washing a uniform, the claim is effectively absorbed by the standard deduction. The result is the same whether or not the laundry is claimed. If expenses go above the maximum standard deduction, the ATO says written evidence is needed for all work-related expenses claimed.

Hypothetical example: the nurse, the chef and the $1,000

Hypothetical example: These figures assume the $1 and 50c per-load shortcut rates apply in 2026–27 and that each worker is eligible for the full $1,000. A nurse washes two loads of work-only uniforms a week for 48 weeks. At $1 a load, that is 2 × 48 × $1 = $96. If the nurse claims the $96, the standard deduction falls to $1,000 − $96 = $904. The total deduction is $96 + $904 = $1,000. If the nurse claims nothing, the standard deduction is $1,000. The total is the same $1,000, and no laundry records are needed. A chef washes three mixed loads a week for 48 weeks. At 50 cents a load, that is 3 × 48 × $0.50 = $72, which again leaves the total at $1,000. Now suppose the chef also has $1,100 of other work expenses backed by receipts. Itemised expenses total $1,172, the standard deduction falls to nil, and the total deduction is $1,172.