For many contact centre employees, end of financial year arrives with the same mix of urgency and uncertainty. Payslips have been landing all year. Super has been coming out. Some people have worked from home part of the week, others have travelled between sites, some have bought headsets or equipment, and many are still not sure what they can and cannot claim.
That uncertainty is exactly why EOFY matters.
For employees in contact centres across Australia, this is the time to stop treating tax as an afterthought and start looking at the year with more discipline. It is not only about whether you get a refund. It is about whether your records are in order, whether your super has been paid correctly, whether you are overlooking legitimate work-related deductions and whether your finances are set up well for the year ahead. The ATO’s current guidance remains clear that employees can only claim a deduction where they paid for the expense themselves, it directly relates to earning their income and they have records to prove it. If they were reimbursed, they generally cannot claim it.
Natasha Mackenzie, Managing Director of Evergreen Accounting, says many employees wait until the last minute and then rely on guesswork.
“Too many employees only think about tax when they are about to lodge,” says Mackenzie. “By then, they are trying to reconstruct a full year from bank statements, old emails and memory. EOFY is much easier when people understand what matters before they lodge.”
One of the biggest areas of confusion for contact centre employees is working from home. Hybrid work remains common across customer service, inbound support, outbound sales and workforce management roles. Employees who work from home may be able to claim expenses related to that work, but only for the work-related portion and only where the ATO’s rules are met. That can include some running expenses and, depending on the method used, phone, internet and office consumables. The ATO also requires proper records, including evidence of hours worked from home and supporting documents for expenses.
“People hear someone say, ‘I work from home so I can claim everything,’ and that is simply not how it works,” Mackenzie says. “You need to be able to show the expense is work-related and that you were not reimbursed. The detail matters.”
For contact centre teams, equipment is another area worth reviewing. If an employee has personally purchased a headset, keyboard, mouse, monitor stand, surge protector or other tools needed to do their job, there may be a deduction available depending on the item and the circumstances. The same applies to some work-related phone and internet use where employees are required to use their personal services for work and are not reimbursed. Again, records are central.
There is also confusion around clothing. Standard office wear is generally not deductible just because it is worn to work. The ATO distinguishes between conventional clothing and occupation-specific, protective or registered uniforms. That means most everyday clothing worn in a contact centre environment will not be claimable, even if the employee bought it specifically for work.
“People are often surprised by what cannot be claimed,” Mackenzie says. “Buying black pants, jackets or shoes for work does not usually make them deductible. The ATO is very clear on that distinction.”
Training and professional development can also come into play. In the contact centre environment, this could include courses related to customer service, communication, sales, leadership, workforce planning or management, provided the study has a sufficient connection to the employee’s current income-earning activities. The ATO’s current position on self-education is not broad or automatic. The study must maintain or improve the skills or knowledge needed in the person’s current role, or be likely to increase income from that current role.
Contact centre employees should also look carefully at superannuation. The super guarantee rate increased to 12 per cent from 1 July 2025, and employers remain responsible for paying the correct amount on time. While Payday Super does not begin until 1 July 2026, it is already shaping the compliance conversation and puts even more focus on payroll accuracy. Employees should not assume everything is correct. They should check their super fund, review their payslips and make sure contributions have been received.
“EOFY is a good time for employees to verify that their super has actually been paid, not just shown on a payslip,” Mackenzie says. “That is a very practical check and one that people should take seriously.”
Another important area is reimbursement. Many employees blur the line between what they paid for and what their employer later covered. If an employer reimburses an expense, the employee generally cannot also claim it as a deduction. This matters for travel, training, subscriptions, phones and equipment.
What should contact centre employees do now?
Start with the basics. Download or organise receipts. Review bank statements for work-related purchases. Check whether anything was reimbursed. Confirm the work-related percentage of any phone or internet use. Review your super contributions. Make sure your income statement is accurate. And most importantly, do not assume that what a colleague claimed is something you can claim too.
Mackenzie says the best approach is practical rather than aggressive.
“The goal should not be to see how much you can stretch,” she says. “The goal should be to lodge correctly, claim what you are genuinely entitled to and keep the records to support it.”
For contact centre employees, EOFY is less about tax-time panic and more about financial discipline. The people who handle it best are rarely the ones making dramatic last-minute claims. They are the ones who stay organised, understand the rules and treat their own finances with the same attention they give to performance at work.
bottom of story, If you want to chat to a Contact Centre Specialist Accountant, contact 1300 063 236
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