Talk to your accountant but it sounds reasonable enough to buy a chair you use at work. If you ever were audited the auditor would have to be quite mean to say no to such a deduction. However there is probably some rule saying you can't claim the purchase price of some equipment as a deduction if your employer provides the equipment. It probably takes about two volumes of the tax act to explain this. So talk to your accountant.

Yes..

Division 8 of ITAA 1997 deals with deductions.

s.8-1 GENERAL DEDUCTIONS
Provides that a loss or an outgoing is allowed as a deduction to the extent that it is:

s.8-1(1) POSITIVE LIMBS (Must be either:)
1)Incurred in gaining or producing your assessable Income
2)Necessarily incurred in carrying on a business for the purposes of gaining or producing assessable income.

s.8-1(2) NEGATIVE LIMBS (Cannot be any of the following:)
Outgoing is CAPITAL in nature (3 Tests s.8-1(2)(a))
O/g is of PRIVATE or DOMESTIC nature (only relevant to individuals)
O/g is incurred in producing EXEMPT income (i.e. prevent competition)
O/g is prevented by a provision of the ITAA

Cambodge said..

Underoath said..
Yes..
s.8-1(1) POSITIVE LIMBS (Must be either:)1)Incurred in gaining or producing your assessable Income

So, why then can I not claim my suits, shirts, ties, shoes and vehicle all of which I only use to arrive at and appear in the office in order to earn my salary?!??!

Get a corporate logo embroidered on them. Preferably not your competitors.

whohoo free tax advice.
Can i claim speeding tickets (while working)
fridge in my car because I travel a lot and my car is a tool of trade at 90%

Cambodge said..

Underoath said..
Yes..
s.8-1(1) POSITIVE LIMBS (Must be either:)1)Incurred in gaining or producing your assessable Income

So, why then can I not claim my suits, shirts, ties, shoes and vehicle all of which I only use to arrive at and appear in the office in order to earn my salary?!??!

You can claim for a uniform, either compulsory or non-compulsory, that is unique and distinctive to the organisation you work for.

Clothing is unique if it has been designed and made only for the employer.

Clothing is distinctive if it has the employer's logo permanently attached and the clothing is not available to the public.You can't claim the cost of purchasing or cleaning a plain uniform.

Sailhack said..

I swap my chair with an exercise ball on a regular basis.

A lot off places ban them due to the OSH risk of injury if they burst...

Evl

See your OHS officer for an assessment for your requirements. The company you work for should accommodate and supply you with the correct chair best suited to your needs.

Pitbull said..

Evl

See your OHS officer for an assessment for your requirements. The company you work for should accommodate and supply you with the correct chair best suited to your needs.

This is the best advice you've had so far. If your chair is a HSR risk then write the risk assessment. Once you have lodged the risk assessment (with OHS/HR) they have no choice but to rectify the problem.

i know this is not tax advice, but all serious desk jockeys could try this to help their core fitness . not sure of the tax deduction, the youtube one is free, but your problems are partly caused by desk, computer and couch

Mahanumah said..

Pitbull said..

Evl

See your OHS officer for an assessment for your requirements. The company you work for should accommodate and supply you with the correct chair best suited to your needs.

This is the best advice you've had so far. If your chair is a HSR risk then write the risk assessment. Once you have lodged the risk assessment (with OHS/HR) they have no choice but to rectify the problem.

I think it depends on the company. I once worked for a Vone company and the manager wanted me to sit at a shared desk that could accommodate 2 people, but had 8 people at it. I sent a question to HR about it, and nothing got done... Well, not straight away, but a month later they were building new desks... Hmmm come to think of it now, maybe they did listen

My new work chair was absolutely wrecking my back, and they refused to let me have a different one because it wouldn't match the others. WTF? I'm in a design office that doesn't have customers coming in.

After a few weeks I informed them in writing that every Wednesday I would be applying for workers comp because my back was a mess after sitting in the chair Mon and Tue. Twenty minutes later, someone came to my desk with keys to a car and told me to go and get myself a new chair.

evlPanda said..

, and it's worth paying for quality (the chair, not my wife (paying not the quality (oh god I'm just making it worse and worse))).

digging yourself in deeper and deeper......betcha don't let your missus read over your shoulder!

stephen

evlPanda said..I waited a few weeks and then snuck the better chair in, but it still sucks. Everything is too small.

Ha, had a similar thing a couple of weeks ago. We just moved to a new office, and I had the whole chair thing all over again, but I actually had taken my other new chair home on the train the day we vacated the office, and after a few weeks, had to sneak it past the decor Nazi's. Geez, we get the mushroom treatment anyway these days, so why they care I will never understand.

Sailhack said..

KB - your monitors are too low unless you're a midget.

Advice I was given after starting to suffer from back issues was "monitor(s) should be up so that your eyes are level with 1/3rd from the top of the screen.

Got a trackball also and have wondered about buying the razer keypad but not sure if I'd 'get it'?

Low - yes I agree. I am not a midget but I do have the chair as low as it goes, and subscribe to this:

www.lumoback.com/2013/08/upright-or-reclined-neutral-spine/
It just feels right to me.
Plus I can then lean forward and see over my monitors at the highway/clouds etc in the distance - very important for eye health (I make sure I educate the bosses on eye health when caught gazing out the window.. ).

As for the trackball I find it great for my work, however I did make 2 mods that I couldn't be without. First is 2 packs of blue tack underneath to raise to a 45 degree angle with the trackball high. So my wrists are neutral. Also paper under the blue tack so it can slide on the desk, and a channel in it so I can still pop the ball out to clean the little rollers. Second is using the logitech software to make the 'button 4' or the index finger front button into the same as the wheel click. That way I can be holding that button easily while scrolling on the wheel - ie simultaneous pan & zoom - very important when drafting.

Razer keypad - I wouldn't be without it now. I have moved from Nostromo to Orbweaver about 6 months ago and love it. Nostromo on my home machine now. I have a cheat sheet, which you can see in pic above, but only look at it about once per day maybe. It just takes you away from being a left hand keyboard basher. I have lots of macros set up too so that for instance "save" sets UCS=w, visretain on, layer=0, then saves.
I started with one keymap and went from there, eased into it. I found the transition fairly easy, with the cheat sheet, but it did take some fiddle time to set up. I make that time back every day now though.
details inc my keymaps here
www.augi.com/forums/showthread.php?130491-Nostromo-2011


PS despite the health implications I would quit rather than stand 40hrs per week. What it gives to your heart/circulation/fitness it takes in the form of aching legs/feet, hemorrhoids/hernias & general fatigue etc. Ask your local check-out chick

Oh and my chair is not the exact one linked above, but similar. Chairs are something you can't buy online, you really have to go sit in all the contenders.

kiteboy dave said..
Low - yes I agree. I am not a midget but I do have the chair as low as it goes, and subscribe to this:

http://www.lumoback.com/2013/08/upright-or-reclined-neutral-spine/
It just feels right to me.

That's interesting, I like to sit in a similar fashion, with a chair that supports my lower back well. The OHS person at our workplace always use to hand out a sheet that showed all limbs, back, etc. at perfect 90 degree angles, and insisted I was sitting wrong. I used to argue what was so special about 90 degrees? They could never give me a sensible answer, spewing out some tripe about "everything is in alignment". Alignment with what, your set-square? I hate when people stick their head in the sand and insist on same mantra with no understanding why.

And it keeps you eyes a little further from the monitor which has to be a good thing.