The deductions nurses and carers most often leave off their return.

Nursing and care work bring a long list of costs that are borne by the worker, not the employer and a return done quickly at the end of a rostered week tends to capture only the obvious ones. A second look by a registered tax agent, against the guidance the ATO publishes for the occupation, often finds items that were never raised the first time.

The usual pattern is that the big-ticket items are claimed and the small recurring ones are not: registration renewals, the laundering of a uniform, the shift-related travel between two workplaces on the same day, the professional development that keeps a registration current. Individually modest, together often not.

Every one of these has conditions. Conventional clothing is not deductible even if you only wear it to work, home-to-work travel is generally not deductible and study has to relate to your current role. The agent checks each item against the rules for that year and tells you which hold up.

Uniforms and protective clothing

Compulsory uniforms with an employer's logo, occupation-specific clothing such as scrubs, non-slip footwear required for the role and protective items may be deductible and so may the cost of laundering them. Plain clothes, even if only worn to work, are not.

Registrations, memberships and equipment

Annual registration fees, union and professional body memberships and equipment you bought yourself for the job such as a stethoscope, a fob watch or a work bag. Items over a threshold are claimed over time rather than in one year, which is where a lot of returns go wrong.

Travel, phone and study

Driving between two workplaces during a shift, or to a patient's home from your base, is different from driving to work in the morning. The work portion of a phone and data plan, where you use it for rosters and handovers. And courses, conferences and materials that maintain or improve the skills you use in your current role.

How to get it looked at

Tell us the income years you have lodged and where you work. A registered tax agent reviews the return, free and tells you in writing whether an amendment is worth lodging. Refunds are not guaranteed and nothing is lodged without your written approval.

General information only. It does not take account of your circumstances and is not tax advice. Untax is a marketing and referral service and is not a registered tax agent.