The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) wants you to know what deductions you can claim and what income you should declare.

Their website has guides to help people who work in a range of industries prepare their tax returns. There is one for building and construction employees and another for tradespeople.

Naturally, the ATO expects you to declare all your taxable income. On the other hand, they also want to inform you about all the deductions you are entitled to claim. So their guides, which are written in plain English, provide some very useful information about

• income and allowances to report
• what you can and can't claim as a work-related deduction
• the records you need to keep

Unless you have a simple tax return you can easily prepare and lodge yourself, it may also pay to use the services of a tax accountant.

See Building and construction employees - income and work-related deductions and Tradesperson - income and work-related deductions.

For the complete list of all industry guides, go to Occupation and industry specific guides.