Hard-working Australians are in danger of losing their right to claim work-related expenses, and may even lose their tax refunds if Labor wins the next federal election and moves to adopt a key recommendation of the Henry Report, according to National Tax & Accountants' Association (NTAA).

It will be one of the biggest tax grabs from hard-working Australians in recent history. Every year Australians claim around $14 billion in work related expenses, resulting in an estimated $5 billion in tax savings said NTAA in a statement released today.

The Gillard government has already accepted the Henry Report's "standard deductions" and has not yet completely ruled out a damaging recommendation to limit working Australians' claiming work related expenses.

The NTAA believes that the government has left the door open to claw back billions of dollars from Australian workers by eliminating many legitimate deductions, said the industry body, which looks after the interests of taxpayers, tax agents and accountants.

It has written to both Labor and the Coalition asking to spell out their position on taxpayers' rights to claim work-related expenses.

According to NTAA, only the Opposition has replied with an iron-clad guarantee that it will "never abolish workrelated deductions in order to increase the tax burden on working Australians".

The government has said that it is "not government policy" to accept the Henry Report's recommendation.

NTAA spokesperson Andrew Gardiner said that the Assistant Treasurer's office, when pressed on the matter, referred back to an earlier media release, which stated, "No taxpayers will be disadvantaged by the measure as taxpayers with expenses above the standard deduction will be able to continue to claim those expenses when lodging their tax return under the existing rules."

"But this gives no commitment that they won't change the rules", says Mr. Gardiner.

"All we need from the government is the same commitment that was offered by the Coalition. That is, hard-working Australians must be permanently entitled to claim their work-related expenses and receive their annual tax refunds.

"The NTAA is now asking government to say that it will never remove the right to claim work-related expenses."