Tesla Logbook & Tax Guides
Plain-English guides to keeping an ATO-compliant logbook for your Tesla, claiming EV running costs, and getting your FBT and GST right. Grounded in current ATO guidance for the 2026-27 year.
How to keep an ATO-compliant logbook for your Tesla
To keep an ATO-compliant logbook for a Tesla, record a continuous period of at least 12 weeks that is representative of your typical driving. For each business journey, log the start and end dates, the odometer readings at the start and end of the trip, the kilometres travelled and the reason for the trip, plus the odometer reading at the start and end of the period. The resulting business-use percentage is valid for five years unless your pattern of use changes materially.
→Your Tesla is FBT-exempt, so why do you still need a logbook?
Usually, yes. An eligible battery-electric car below the fuel-efficient luxury car tax threshold ($91,661 for 2026-27, $91,387 for 2025-26) is exempt from Fringe Benefits Tax, and its private use is still a reportable fringe benefit. The employer must calculate a notional taxable value for the employee's reportable fringe benefits amount, either with the statutory formula method, which needs no logbook, or with the operating cost method, which requires a complying 12-week logbook and can give a lower value when business use is high.
→How to claim your Tesla's charging and running costs
If you use your Tesla for business, you can claim the business-use percentage of all actual running costs (including charging electricity, servicing, insurance, registration, interest and decline in value), but only with a complying logbook. Without one, you are limited to the cents-per-kilometre method: 91c per business kilometre for 2026-27 (88c for 2024-25 and 2025-26), capped at 5,000 business kilometres per car ($4,550), with no separate claim for actual costs.
→ATO cents per km rate 2026-27: 91c per business km
The ATO cents per km rate for the 2026-27 income year (1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027) is 91c per business kilometre, set by the Commissioner's determination F2026L00785. Your claim is capped at 5,000 business km per car, which puts the maximum at $4,550 per car. In 2024-25 and 2025-26 the rate was 88c, and electric and petrol cars use the same rate.
→EV home charging rate 2026-27: 5.47c per km
The ATO EV home charging rate is 5.47c per km from 1 April 2026 for fringe benefits tax and from 1 July 2026 (the 2026-27 income year) for income tax, up from 4.20c. Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2024/2 sets it so you can value the electricity used to charge an electric car at home without working out your actual home electricity costs. For income tax it works with the logbook method only, because the cents per km rate already includes electricity.
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