Can I use bank statements instead of receipts for tax?

Bank statements are useful but limited. They prove that a transaction occurred — that money left your account on a particular date and went to a particular merchant. What they cannot prove is what you bought, the business purpose of the purchase, or how much GST was included.

What bank statements can and cannot show

A statement entry might read "Officeworks $89.40" — that tells you something was bought at Officeworks. It does not tell you whether it was a work notebook or a birthday card for your colleague. The ATO wants to know both that the expense was real and that it was genuinely work-related. A receipt gives you both; a bank statement gives you only the first.

When bank statements are accepted

The ATO accepts bank statements as supporting evidence — not as a substitute for written evidence, but as corroboration when receipts are missing. If you have a genuine claim and a matching bank statement, you are in a stronger position than having neither. Some deductions, such as union fees, professional memberships, and income protection insurance premiums, appear on bank statements in ways that are reasonably self-explanatory.

For claims under $300

Under the ATO's $300 written evidence concession, you do not need receipts for individual expenses under $75 where the total of all unreceipted claims does not exceed $300. A bank statement can corroborate these amounts, though you still need to have actually incurred a genuine work expense.

The practical answer

Use bank statements as a backstop, not a strategy. If you have already lost a receipt and a bank statement is all you have, use it — it is better than nothing. But do not plan to rely on bank statements as your primary record. They are incomplete and leave too much room for the ATO to disallow a claim.

A receipt app takes the guesswork out of it entirely. You capture the receipt at the moment of purchase, the details are extracted automatically, and you have a permanent record that satisfies the ATO's requirements without any reconstruction.