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Overtime meal expenses
Employers in Australia can grant their employees an overtime meal allowance. The ATO determines reasonable amounts for these allowances. These reasonable amounts are reviewed at the start of each income year (1 July).
- 2024-25: 37.65 AUD
- 2023-24: 35.65 AUD
If an employee spends less on the overtime meal than the defined reasonable amount, they can claim a deduction for the amount spent and there’s no need to keep the receipt. The receipt would only be necessary if the employee wanted to claim more than the defined reasonable amount.
If the overtime meal allowance was not shown on the employee’s payment summary and they fully spent the allowance, they can choose to leave it out of their tax return and not claim a deduction for the meal purchased when working overtime.