Highlights

  • Under the new $1,000 standard deduction, assets used mainly to earn wage or salary income can no longer be added to a low-value pool.
  • It is easy to miss because returns lodged before the 31 October deadline still cover 2025–26, under the old treatment.
  • The change is part of Schedule 4, "Standard deduction for work-related expenses", of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No.
  • That is enacted law, and the ATO has published guidance on how it applies.

From 2026–27, devices used mainly to earn salary or wages can't be added to a low-value pool. The deduction survives, but it now eats into the new $1,000 standard deduction, which changes the maths for many workers. A new laptop, phone or monitor bought for work since 1 July 2026 falls under rules that are different from those that applied a year ago.

What the Changes Mean

The new rules shape claims made from July 2027. The standard deduction itself is available to Australian residents for tax purposes with assessable labour income, such as salary and wages, director fees and parental leave pay. The ATO says people whose only income is dividends or business income are not eligible. A low-value pool is a way of depreciating cheaper or largely written-down assets together, rather than tracking each one separately. For employees, it has been one of the ways to claim the work share of devices such as laptops, tablets and phones. The ATO says assets already in a low-value pool are not affected. The restriction applies to new additions from 2026–27.

What workers can still claim

Losing access to the pool does not mean losing the deduction. The ATO says workers can still claim the decline in value of a work asset used to earn labour income. The difference is how that claim interacts with the new standard deduction. A decline-in-value claim for a labour-income asset reduces the standard deduction dollar for dollar. The ATO's working-from-home guidance also notes that work technology and furniture are claimed separately from the fixed-rate method, as decline in value. Items costing $300 or less may be immediately deductible if they are used mainly to produce income that is not business income. That immediate deduction is still a labour-related work expense for most employees. Like decline in value, it would count towards the expenses that reduce the $1,000.

Selling or retiring the device

The rules also cover what happens when a work device is sold, disposed of or no longer used. The ATO says a fixed 50% rate can be used to work out the balancing adjustment for labour-income assets that are sold, disposed of or stop being used. Any balancing adjustment deduction reduces the standard deduction. The ATO guidance lists balancing adjustments among the items that reduce the standard deduction. A worker who claims a balancing adjustment deduction in a year when other expenses are small may find it simply absorbed by the $1,000.

Hypothetical example: a laptop and a headset

Hypothetical example: The decline-in-value figure below is an assumption for illustration only. The real figure depends on the asset's cost, effective life, the depreciation method used and the share of work use, none of which are worked out here. Suppose a worker buys a $2,000 laptop in August 2026 and uses it 80% for work. Assume the work-related decline in value for 2026–27 comes to $500.