Letter to the Commissioner

On 24 April, the Institute of Financial Professionals Australia (IFPA) wrote to Mr Rob Heferen, Commissioner of Taxation, regarding a recent Tribunal decision involving a disallowed meal expense claim by a long-distance truck driver (Shaw’s case). In IFPA's letter to the…

On 24 April, the Institute of Financial Professionals Australia (IFPA) wrote to Mr Rob Heferen, Commissioner of Taxation, regarding a recent Tribunal decision involving a disallowed meal expense claim by a long-distance truck driver (Shaw’s case).

In IFPA's letter to the Commissioner, IFPA stated it believes this case warrants a review of the ATO’s administrative approach, potentially through the exercise of the Commissioner’s general powers of administration. We highlighted that many truck drivers—and their advisers—misunderstand section 900-50 of the ITAA 1997, believing that written evidence is unnecessary when claims are within the ATO’s published reasonable meal expenditure caps.

However, before this substantiation exemption applies, the taxpayer must first establish that the expense was actually incurred under section 8-1, which typically requires some form of evidence. This misunderstanding led Mr Shaw to the Tribunal, which fortunately accepted his evidence despite the ATO’s objections. The Letter to the Commissioner attachment outlines the case in detail, but our key recommendation is a revised administrative approach: where truck drivers limit claims to the published caps, they should be deemed to have met the section 8-1 requirement. This could be achieved via a Decision Impact Statement on the Shaw decision. IFPA’s full position is outlined in the document.