If on a business trip your company pays for economy and you pay the difference to premium or business there are no tax benefits of that are there?

If on a business trip your company pays for economy and you pay the difference to premium or business there are no tax benefits of that are there? Read on another forum but wasnt sure if that was a real thing or someones imagination.

No, it would be a little difficult trying to convince the tax man you deserve to fly everywhere business class but the rest of the country should subsidise this

no, that's instinctual but incorrect.   the tax man has to accommodate the politicians and bureaucrat officials who see first and business travel as ordinary and necessary business expenses.    even cruise ship or resort travel can be deductible, structured correctly within the rules.   if the expense is business travel, and your employer didn't pay it, the deduction falls to you to claim.

If you can arrange with your employer to pay for the more expensive ticket and salary sacrifice the difference, you get the same outcome.  Even so I would have thought any work related travel expenses are deductible.   

I would claim it without a doubt. Is the expense incurred directly related to your income, I would think so. If a person is paid an allowance for expenses and spends over that amount they claim more. I spent more on my car than my car allowance and will claim all deductions, not just those up to my allowance level.

Ask your accountant. 

I'm going to ask my accountant but wanted to see if anyone had experience on the subject already. 

GBRBG are you referring to company expense allowance or tax deductible allowance.

Interesting point. People do claim first and business class travel on taxes, but these tickets are bought outright rather than a paid upgrade from economy. One could argue if the former is permitted (even though one can argue why someone needs to fly first/business on a work related trip when subsided by the taxpayer when they could just as well fly economy), then the latter should be permitted too? 

Many companies pay employees a set rate per night they are away on business, example $400 per night. If the person spends $500 per night they still claim the $500 as an expense against income, the $400 is irrelevant. If they only spend $300 then the remaining $100 would be then counted as taxable income and taxed at the persons margin. The ATO do not have limits on expenditure against income for travel for companies or individuals, the mix of funds to pay for the travel is also irrelevant. Whether it is an upgrade on an airline, paid access to a lounge, a limo instead of a taxi, a penthouse instead of a double room etc etc makes no difference. If it is a legitimate business expense you can claim it as a deduction against income, I do. 

That's some very creative accounting there, better hope you're never audited

I agree with gbrgb. If it's work related it's claimable, regardless of whether it seems justifiable by the average taxpayer 

FYI if anyone was interested in the outcome.

The answer is Yes. It is tax deductible.