Many of the fuels you use to conduct your business activities have excise or customs duty included in their purchase price. You may be able to claim fuel tax credits (that is, get money back) for the excise or customs duty, if your fuel and business activities are eligible.

Fuel tax credits can be claimed for most business activities but before making a claim, you need to make sure that:

• you are registered for GST at the time you acquire the taxable fuel, you will also need to register for fuel tax credits
• the fuels you used are eligible for fuel tax credits
• you are conducting business activities that are eligible for fuel tax credits
• you understand and apply any specific eligibility rules that may apply to your business activities or fuels
• identify which fuel tax credit rate to use
• you use an appropriate method to work out how much fuel you can claim and apportion for fuel that can be claimed and can’t be claimed
• you keep records to support your fuel tax credit claim.

The ATO has a Fuel tax credit eligibility tool that can help you work out whether your fuels and business activities are eligible.

If you’re eligible, you can then work out your fuel tax credits claim. There are several simplified methods which you may be able to use, when calculating your claim. Simplified methods may make your calculations easier or simplify record-keeping requirements.

The ATO has a Fuel tax credit calculator that can help you work out your claim and it can be used to calculate most claims, but if you use certain simplified calculation methods, you’ll need to calculate these manually. The ATO Fuel tax credit calculator doesn’t consider your specific circumstances, so you need to understand and apply fuel and business activity eligibility rules, before making a claim.

Once you work out your fuel tax credits, you can claim. To make a claim, you must be registered for GST and fuel tax credits. The easiest way to register for both is through the ATO’s online services for business.

You then claim fuel tax credits on your business activity statement (BAS).