Tax deductions for painters
As a painter you can generally claim spray and access equipment, the consumables that get used up on every job, respiratory protection, and travel between sites.
Painting is the trade where the biggest claim is often the smallest receipts: masking, sheeting, filler, abrasives and filters, bought weekly and used up immediately. It’s also the trade where the protective-clothing rule is most often misread.
The three rules for any claim
- You paid for it yourself and weren’t reimbursed.
- It directly relates to earning your income.
- You have a record — a receipt, invoice or bank statement.
Checked against ATO guidance: September 2026
What you can usually claim
Spray gear, compressors, brushes and rollers
Spray guns, compressors, sanders and the brushes and rollers around them. How you claim depends on how you work. On wages, an item costing $300 or less can generally be claimed in full that year, provided it is not part of a set, or one of several near-identical items, costing more than $300 together. On an ABN that rule does not apply: business assets are claimed over their effective life, or under a small-business write-off in the years one is available. Servicing and repairs are separate either way, claimed in the year you pay them.
Consumables that go on every job
Drop sheets, masking tape, plastic, abrasives, fillers, thinners, cleaners and disposable liners. These are claimed in the year you buy them rather than depreciated — and because each receipt is small and the purchases are weekly, this is the category most often lost rather than disallowed.
Respiratory and protective equipment
Respirators, replacement cartridges and filters, disposable coveralls, eye protection, gloves and steel-capped boots. Cartridges and filters are consumables replaced on a schedule, so they recur through the year rather than being a one-off purchase.
Access equipment and tickets
Ladders, trestles and planks you buy, scaffolding or elevated work platform hire for a job, and keeping a working-at-heights or EWP ticket current. Hire costs are claimed in the year you pay them; equipment you own follows the usual threshold and effective-life treatment.
Sun protection and travel between sites
For outdoor work, sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat used to protect you while working are generally claimable. Travel between job sites during the day is claimable; the ordinary commute isn’t. How you calculate it depends on the vehicle. The logbook and cents-per-kilometre methods apply only to a car — built to carry under one tonne and fewer than nine passengers — with cents-per-kilometre capped at 5,000 work-related kilometres a year. Many utes and larger vans carry a tonne or more, are not cars for this purpose, and have their running costs claimed at actual cost apportioned to work use, with records to support the split. Check the payload on the compliance plate rather than assuming.
General information, not personal tax advice. What you can claim depends on your circumstances — check the ATO's own occupation guides or a registered tax agent, and keep records for every claim.
Keep in mind
- Everyday clothes ruined by paint — being wrecked by the job doesn’t make ordinary clothing protective.
- The initial qualification that got you into the trade.
- The daily commute from home to a single regular workplace.
- Materials or gear the employer or head contractor supplied.
Where mistakes happen
The claims most likely to get adjusted — not because they're disallowed outright, but because the split or the timing was off.
- Claiming paint-spattered everyday clothes as protective clothing. The test is whether an item is protective by design — coveralls, a respirator, safety boots — not whether the work destroyed it, and this is the single most common painter’s claim to be knocked back.
- Claiming a spray rig or compressor in full where it cost more than $300. Above the threshold it is claimed over its effective life unless a small-business write-off applies that year, and the threshold has moved between years.
- Claiming sun protection without outdoor work to support it. The claim rests on being exposed to the sun while earning your income, so an interior-only year is hard to justify.
Take it further
Your income tax, Medicare levy and take-home pay on any salary.
AI2Fin for tradies →The glovebox receipts, already sorted
Handle the small stuff: bulk processing →Weekly consumable receipts are the easiest claim to lose — review and categorise a month of them in one pass.
Depreciation (decline in value) →Claiming the cost of a big asset gradually over its life.
Effective life →How many years an asset is expected to be used — the base of every depreciation rate.
Substantiation (proving a deduction) →The records that turn a claim into a defensible deduction.
Instant asset write-off →Immediately deduct an eligible asset instead of depreciating it.
Cents per kilometre method →A simpler car claim — a set rate per business km, capped.
Painters — common questions
Can I claim clothes covered in paint?
Generally not, if they’re ordinary clothes. Deductible protective clothing has to be protective by design — coveralls, respirators, safety boots — rather than everyday items the work happened to ruin. Buying dedicated coveralls instead of wearing out old clothes usually turns a rejected claim into a valid one. This is general information, not personal tax advice — what you can claim depends on your circumstances, so check with the ATO or a registered tax agent, and keep records to back up every claim.
Are respirator cartridges and filters claimable?
Yes. Cartridges and filters are consumables replaced on a schedule, so they’re claimed in the year you buy them rather than depreciated with the respirator. Because they recur through the year, keeping the receipts as you go is worth more here than in most categories. This is general information, not personal tax advice — what you can claim depends on your circumstances, so check with the ATO or a registered tax agent, and keep records to back up every claim.
Can I claim sunscreen and a hat?
Where you work outdoors and are exposed to the sun while earning your income, sun protection is generally claimable. The connection to outdoor work is what supports it, so a year spent entirely on interior jobs is a much weaker basis for the claim. This is general information, not personal tax advice — what you can claim depends on your circumstances, so check with the ATO or a registered tax agent, and keep records to back up every claim.
What about hiring scaffolding or an elevated work platform?
Hire costs for a job are generally claimed in full in the year you pay them, which is simpler than owning the equipment. Equipment you buy instead follows the usual treatment — under $300 claimed outright, above it over its effective life. This is general information, not personal tax advice — what you can claim depends on your circumstances, so check with the ATO or a registered tax agent, and keep records to back up every claim.
Deductions for other occupations
See all occupations.
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