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A car logbook template, with every field the ATO asks for

A blank logbook to print: the car's details, the 12-week period with its odometer readings and totals, a table for the journeys, and a page for each year's odometer readings. Every field is there because the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 or the ATO's logbook-method pages ask for it, and this page says which. General information, not tax advice.

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Update odometer in RyeDC: a dash reading typed in and checked against where the last shift ended

The template

Three A4 pages, landscape. The car and the logbook period are on the first, with the table of business journeys running on to the second; the third is the odometer record for each income year the logbook is relied on, with the rules for keeping it. Print as many copies of the second page as the 12 weeks need.

Download the car logbook template (PDF)

The first page of the RyeDC car logbook template: the car's details, the logbook period with its odometer readings and totals, and a blank table of business journeys

The car

The ATO's business page asks for the car's make, model, engine capacity and registration number, and section 28-140 of the Act puts the same details on the odometer records: the engine capacity in cubic centimetres, for a car with an internal combustion engine. An electric car has no engine capacity to enter.

The logbook period

Section 28-125 of the Act lists the period's entries: when the period began and ended, the car's odometer readings at the start and the end, the total kilometres it travelled, the business kilometres on the journeys recorded, and those business kilometres as a percentage of the total. Each is entered at or as soon as possible after the start or end of the period. The template has a box for each, with the sum beside the percentage, because the ATO's page works it out that way: business kilometres divided by total kilometres, times 100.

The journey table

Section 28-125 says a journey is recorded by an entry of four things, and the ATO's page for individuals adds a fifth. The template's columns:

  • Day the journey began, and day it ended. The Act asks for both.
  • Odometer at the start and at the end, in kilometres.
  • Kilometres: how many the car travelled on the journey.
  • Destination. The ATO's page asks for the destination of every work-related journey, along with the reason and purpose.
  • Why the journey was made: the business reason, in the Act's words.
  • Entry made on. Not a field the Act names. It asks that the record be made at the end of the journey or as soon as possible afterwards, and a date beside each entry is how a paper logbook shows that it was. RyeDC's logbook prints when each entry was made for the same reason.

Two or more business journeys in a row on the same day may be recorded as one. The Act asks for a record of each business journey; private driving needs no row, because the private distance is the period's odometer span less the business kilometres. The ATO's business page allows a row that says a journey was private, if you would rather account for every trip. Every entry must be in English.

Odometer records, year by year

The logbook sets the percentage for up to five years. In each of the four years after the logbook year, the ATO's page says to keep the odometer readings for the start and end of the period you held the car in that year, with the business kilometres and the percentage for the year worked out from the logbook. Section 28-100 of the Act adds that you record, in writing, your estimate of the business kilometres and the business use percentage before you lodge the return. The template's third page has a row for each year, with the day each reading was taken and the day the estimate was recorded.

The 12 weeks

Section 28-120 asks for a continuous period of at least 12 weeks throughout which you held the car, and the ATO adds that it must be broadly representative of your travel. It may overlap the start or end of an income year. If you held the car for less than 12 weeks, the period is the whole time you held it. Two or more cars claimed in the same year keep logbooks covering the same period. A logbook is valid for five years; if your circumstances change so that it no longer represents your work-related use, you need a new one, and the ATO's business page says you may start a new one at any time. Which weeks to choose is the subject of Your representative car logbook period.

Keeping it

Section 28-150 says to retain the logbook until the end of the latest income year you rely on it for, and then for another five years, counted from the day the return for that year was due, or lodged if later. The odometer records are kept for the same period (section 28-155). Without the logbook, no amount worked out from its percentage can be deducted, and a deduction already claimed can be disallowed. The ATO's page puts it as five years after the end of the latest income year you rely on them.

The expenses the percentage applies to need records of their own: receipts for fuel and oil, or a reasonable estimate from the odometer readings, your car's fuel consumption and the average price of fuel; receipts for registration, insurance, lease payments, servicing, tyres, repairs, electricity and interest; and the car's purchase price, with how its decline in value is worked out. The car logbook for rideshare drivers goes through them.

Or let RyeDC keep it

RyeDC records the drives in your car automatically, or by shift from the dash, and prints the same logbook with every field filled: each journey's days, odometer readings, kilometres, destination and reason, the date each entry was made, the period's readings and totals, and the year's estimate on its first page. Update odometer takes the dash reading and checks it against the drives since the last one. The ATO logbook page shows each requirement beside where the export answers it, with a sample on made-up data.

Related guides

The car logbook for rideshare drivers follows the logbook method's rules in order, with the ATO's examples of which trips are business. Logbook method or cents per kilometre? compares the two methods with the current rate. Tax basics for rideshare drivers covers the ABN, GST, tax invoices and the return.

This page is general information, not tax advice. The ATO's pages below are the source; a registered tax agent can say how they apply to you.

Sources

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