ATO Vehicle Logbook Rules: What Tradies Need to Track

Updated 8 July 2026

The ATO gives car-driving tradies two ways to claim vehicle costs: cents per kilometre (88c/km, capped at 5,000 business km a year, no logbook required) or the logbook method (a 12-week logbook establishing your business-use percentage, which you then apply to all running costs). High-kilometre tradies almost always come out ahead on the logbook method — and utes over one tonne of payload play by different rules entirely.

Method 1: cents per kilometre

• 88 cents per business kilometre (the 2024–25 and 2025–26 rate — the ATO reviews it each year).
• Capped at 5,000 business km per car per year — a maximum claim of $4,400.
• No logbook required, but you still need to show how you worked out the kilometres — a diary of work trips or app records.
• The rate covers everything: fuel, rego, insurance, servicing and depreciation. You can’t claim any of those on top.

Good for low-mileage years. But 5,000 km is under 100 km a week — most tradies drive past the cap by spring.

Method 2: the logbook method

Keep a logbook for at least 12 continuous weeks that fairly represents your normal driving. It establishes your business-use percentage, which you then apply to all car costs — fuel and oil, rego, insurance, servicing and repairs, interest on the car loan, and depreciation. The percentage holds for up to five years if your pattern doesn't change.

Each business trip in the logbook needs:

• the date (or start/end dates of the journey)
• odometer readings at the start and end
• kilometres travelled
• the reason for the journey — "Smith job, Berwick → Reece plumbing supplies" beats "work"

You also record the odometer at the start and end of the logbook period (and each income year), plus the car's make, model, engine capacity and rego. Keep fuel and expense receipts all year — the logbook gives you the percentage, receipts give you the costs. Those live in your expenses anyway if you're tracking them for deductions and BAS.

Which trips count as business

• Yes: between job sites, out to quote a job, to suppliers and the tip, between your workshop and a site, to training or the accountant.
• No: home to your regular workplace and back — that’s private, even with tools in the tray and the company name on the door.
• The bulky-tools exception: home-to-site travel can be claimable if you must transport substantial, bulky equipment and there’s no secure storage at the site. It’s a genuine exception the ATO checks — don’t stretch it.

The one-tonne ute exception

Both methods above apply to "cars" — vehicles designed to carry less than one tonne and fewer than nine passengers. Many tradie vehicles (single-cab utes with a tray, most vans, some dual-cabs — check your payload) carry one tonne or more and are not cars. For those you claim the actual business costs: no 5,000 km cap, no formal 12-week rule, but you still need records showing the business share of use — in practice, a trip log is still the cleanest evidence.

Keeping the log without the glovebox notebook

The logbook method fails in practice for one reason: nobody backfills a paper logbook honestly after a 50-hour week. The fix is logging trips as they happen. TradieMate has a vehicle logbook built in — pick your start and end (home, jobs, suppliers), the distance is calculated automatically, and each trip carries a purpose tag, so your records match what the ATO asks for. See it in the tour, or check how TradieMate compares to apps that make you bolt a logbook on.

This guide is general information, not tax, legal or financial advice. Rules and rates change — check current details with the ATO or a registered tax agent before acting on it.