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Ned Hall, one of the public broadcaster’s sports radio hosts and producers, had to work from a spare bedroom inside his inner eastern Melbourne home during the 2020/21 financial year – the height of the Covid pandemic. At the time, Victoria was under some of the strictest rules in the world with its borders shut, multiple lockdowns enforced and residents told to work from home. Get all the latest Australian news as it happens — download the news.com.au app direct to your phone. Mr Hall sought to claim deductions on rental expenses after he transformed his second bedroom into an office. He also claimed car costs – as he had to drive to the ABC studios in Southbank for his job on some days – in his 2021 tax return. But the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) disallowed both claims, leading Mr Hall to lodge an objection, which was rejected by its Commissioner in September 2022. The ABC host in that same month took the case further to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, now known as the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART). After almost three years, ART ruled in favour of Mr Hall and awarded him $5,878.87 for occupation expenses related to the bedroom turned home office and $1,148 in car-related costs. MORE: How to negotiate working from home The ATO is now hoping to overturn the decision in the Federal Court - with a ruling expected to be handed down in coming weeks - and has warned against making the claim. The tax office said anyone who receives a deduction on a rental claim could end up paying more tax if it is overturned. There could be major implications for renters who work from home if the Federal Court upholds the decision, one expert said. “It’s a straight-out matter of getting a deduction for basically part of your home,” University of New South Wales Assocate Professor, Dale Boccabella, told the Herald Sun. “But you’ve really got to set aside the place, and no one else in the family really uses it in a substantial way.” WHF right in Victoria The tax office fears more claims could be made under the loophole that will leave the federal budget with a multi-billion dollar blackhole. Three million Aussie households, or about 31 per cent, are renting, according to the 2021 Census. It comes as millions of Victorians could be given the legal right to work from home two days a week under a bold new plan from Premier Jacinta Allan. The state government is promising to introduce the law — covering both public and private sectors — by next year, with it applying to anyone who can “reasonably” carry out their work away from the office. MORE: The good and the bad of working from home “Working from home works for families and it’s good for the economy,” she said in August. “Day after day, unions are being contacted by workers who have been denied reasonable requests to work from home, and across the country, Liberals are drawing up plans to abolish work-from-home and force workers back to the office and back to the past. “Enshrining work from home in law means this life-changing practice isn’t something you or your loved ones have to politely ask for. It’s a right you’ll be entitled to.” ART Deputy President Clare Thompson SC stated multiple reasons in her judgement as to why she ruled in favour of Mr Hall. One of the key findings was the work arrangements were “beyond his control” and that he had “no choice” due to Covid, which first hit Victoria in January 2020. “Throughout the 2021 year there were restrictions imposed on Mr Hall which prevented him attending his usual workplace at the Southbank Studios,” the ruling read. “These restrictions were variously imposed by the Victorian Government, and by Mr Hall’s employer, the ABC. “The only period in the 2021 year where there were no Victorian Government imposed restrictions on Mr Hall working from the Southbank Studios was the period from 26 March 2021 to 27 May 2021.” It was also flagged the ABC presenter’s main role was in the digital space and it was “undertaken exclusively from the spare or second bedroom of the apartment”. “As to his choice of where in the apartment he worked, I do not accept this was a matter of mere convenience for him to work in the spare bedroom; rather it was the only feasible place available to him to earn the majority of his assessable income in the 2021 income year,” Ms Thompson continued. “Whilst he could theoretically have worked in another part of his apartment, that was not a realistic proposition given the combination of his work needs, his wife’s work needs, and of course the vagaries of the Melbourne weather that would have made any possibility of setting up his workplace on the outdoor balcony unrealistic. “In his evidence Mr Hall was clear that he only ever worked in the spare bedroom and that it was the only space appropriate for him to work in.” The ATO’s Commissioner argued the WFH arrangements were temporary, which Ms Thompson accepted would have passed once the lockdowns were finished and his bosses at ABC allowed him to return to the office. But she said that was not the case for Mr Hall who had to work from his home office for the entirety of the 2021 income year due to restrictions being continually extended. “This decision has no impact on what can be claimed by Mr Hall in any later year of income, which would need to be assessed based on the facts which prevailed at that later time,” Ms Thompson said. “For the reasons above, I allow the deduction for rent for Mr Hall’s home office for $5,878.87.”
