Mileage log requirements in Australia

What your records have to contain to survive a check by the Australian Taxation Office, and the rate DriveHub applies.

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Updated 26 Sep 2026

Country

The rate

$0.91 per km

In force from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027.

The rule that governs it

Two methods, two record regimes. Cents per kilometre (capped at 5 000 km — per car, not per person) needs no odometer, only a way of showing how the kilometres were worked out; the ATO's examples are a diary or the myDeductions tool in the ATO app. Logbook method is the strict one.

What every trip has to record

Required — logbook method

A continuous period of at least 12 weeks, representative of the year's travel
odometer readings at the start and end of the logbook period and the total kilometres for it
and for every work-related journey: the odometer at the start and end, the total kilometres, the destination, and the reason. Each entry made at the end of the journey or as soon as possible after

Required every year regardless

Odometer readings at 1 July and 30 June, to compute the year's business-use fraction.

Required on the odometer-records document (s 28-140(3))

The car's make, model and registration number · and if the car has an internal combustion engine, its engine capacity in cubic centimetres.

Prefer to keep it by hand? A blank log with these fields: CSV · PDF.

What form the records may take

Division 28 prescribes what the log book and the odometer document contain and that every entry is in English (ITAA 1997 s 28-125(5), s 28-140(2) and (4)); it names no medium. The ATO accepts either: "You can keep an electronic logbook using the myDeductions tool in the ATO app, or keep a paper logbook", and for a sole trader the records are "an electronic or pre-printed logbook (available from stationery suppliers)". The cents-per-kilometre method needs no logbook and no receipts, only "a record to show how you calculate your work-related kilometres (e.g. using a diary or the myDeductions tool in the ATO app)" — s 28-35: "To use this method, you do not need to substantiate the car expenses for the car."

How long to keep them

Distinct from validity, and longer. ITAA 1997 s 28-150(1): keep the log book until the end of the latest income year you rely on it for, "and then for another 5 years" — and those five start on the due day for lodging that year's return, or the day you actually lodge if later (s 28-150(2)), which is the only retention clock among the 21 countries on this site that starts at lodgment. Odometer records ride the same period (s 28-155(2)), and an unresolved objection or amendment request extends it indefinitely (s 28-150(3)). Validity and retention compose: a log book written for 2026-27 and relied on through its full five-year validity must be kept about five years past the 2030-31 return — roughly ten years after it was written. A sole trader is additionally under ITAA 1936 s 262A(4), five years "after those records were prepared… or the completion of the transactions… whichever is the later", and an employer's FBT records under FBTAA s 132(1)(b), with s 123(2) deeming a non-retained log book "never to have been maintained". The sanction is loss of the deduction (s 28-150(4)), not the administrative penalty: TAA 1953 Sch 1 s 288-25(2)(b) expressly carves out documents required under Division 900.

What it costs to get wrong

The deduction, not a fine. Without a valid log book the logbook method is closed — the ATO: "If you don't have a valid logbook, you can't use the logbook method to claim car expenses. You may be able to use the cents per kilometre method instead." That fallback is capped, s 28-25(2): "you can use this formula for the first 5,000 business kilometres only. If the car travelled more than 5,000 business kilometres, you must discard the kilometres in excess of 5,000." And if neither method can be used, s 28-12(2): "you can't deduct anything for the car expenses." A log book not kept for the retention period takes the deduction with it after the fact, s 28-150(4): "you cannot deduct any amount worked out using a business use percentage that you are relying on the log book to support. If you have already deducted such an amount, your assessment may be amended to disallow the deduction." Records not produced on the Commissioner's written notice are lost the same way — s 900-185(1): "you cannot deduct the expense" — and s 900-185(2) adds "You do not commit an offence merely by not complying with the notice". The Commissioner may still allow the claim where "the nature and quality of the evidence you have to substantiate your claim satisfies the Commissioner" that the expense was incurred and is deductible (s 900-195, applied to Division 28 by s 28-150(6)). The general administrative penalty for failing to keep records — "20 penalty units", TAA 1953 Sch 1 s 288-25(1) — does not apply to "documents required to be kept or retained under Division 900 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (about substantiation of expenses)" (s 288-25(2)(b)); s 28-150(5) treats the log book as a record of the car expenses for Division 900's retention rules.

Where this comes from

The requirements above are quoted from the Australian Taxation Office. DriveHub re-checks these, and the rate, against the authority's own pages; this page is built from that record.

DriveHub records this automatically. It tracks each drive in the background and keeps the start and end, the distance and the route. Tracking and the missing-drive check are free; the report in the shape a tax office expects is part of DriveHub Pro.