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Download the ATO reasonable amounts (Excel)When an Australian employee travels for work, the ATO publishes reasonable amounts each year that act as a substantiation shortcut: spend within them on a bona fide travel allowance and you may not need to keep every receipt. This cheat sheet puts the 2025-26 figures on one page so a policy or an approver can apply them without opening the full taxation determination.
The download is a table covering the overtime meal amount and the domestic travel meal and incidental amounts for the lowest salary band, with a note on the higher bands and accommodation.
The 2025-26 reasonable amounts
From Taxation Determination TD 2025/4, for the 2025-26 income year:
- Overtime meal: $38.65 where a bona fide overtime meal allowance is paid under an industrial instrument.
- Domestic travel, salary $148,250 or less: breakfast $34.75, lunch $39.10, dinner $66.65, and incidentals $24.50 per day.
Accommodation is a separate amount that varies by city, so it is not a single figure. The meal and incidental amounts above are constant across the capital cities for this salary band; higher amounts apply for salaries between $148,251 and $263,850 and for $263,851 and above.
What the reasonable amounts actually do
The amounts are a substantiation exception, not an automatic entitlement. Where an employee receives a genuine travel or overtime meal allowance and spends within the reasonable amount, they can claim a deduction without keeping written evidence. But three things still have to be true: the expense must actually have been incurred, the allowance must be a bona fide allowance (not a disguised part of salary), and the employee must be able to show how the claim relates to the travel. The exception removes the receipt-keeping burden; it does not remove the requirement to have genuinely spent the money.
Meals only apply within the travel period
The reasonable meal amounts only cover meals that fall within the time of day from the start of travel to the end of travel. If an employee leaves at 10am on Monday and returns at 3pm Tuesday, they can apply lunch and dinner for Monday and breakfast and lunch for Tuesday, but not a meal outside that window. A policy that benchmarks to these amounts should make that timing clear, so staff do not claim a meal for a part of the day that fell outside the period the allowance actually covered.
How to use the cheat sheet
- For overtime, apply the $38.65 amount where a genuine overtime meal allowance is paid.
- For domestic travel, apply the breakfast, lunch, dinner, and incidental amounts for the relevant salary band.
- Add the city-specific accommodation amount from the full determination.
- Confirm the allowance is bona fide and the expense was actually incurred before relying on the substantiation exception.
Common mistakes
- Treating the reasonable amount as an automatic deduction without actually spending it.
- Applying the amounts when the allowance is not a genuine travel allowance.
- Using the lowest band’s figures for a higher-salary employee.
- Forgetting that accommodation varies by city and is not part of the flat meal figures.
When the amounts apply themselves
A cheat sheet is a reference; applying it on every claim is the work. Tools that help:
- Driversnote and similar tools handle the travel record automatically.
- ExpenseFlow reads each travel receipt, codes it, and applies the right treatment as it posts into Xero or QuickBooks Online, so a policy benchmarked to these amounts is enforced in the coding rather than checked by hand.
- Weel sets travel card limits aligned to the reasonable amounts before the spend happens.
Keep this sheet with your expense policy, refresh it when the ATO publishes the next determination, and let captured-at-source coding keep travel claims consistent.