We are hurtling towards the end of the financial year, and many people are buying hundreds of dollars of items to claim them as a tax deduction next month. Roy Morgan research found Australians are set to spend $1,714 each this year in end-of-financial-year (EOFY) sales.

Collectively, it's tipped to be around $10.5 billion spent. But tax expert Natalie Lennon told Yahoo Finance she sees so many people spending unnecessarily just because there's a deal on.

"Only buy things if you actually need them," she said. "Never do something just for the tax benefit."

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Lennon has also seen a huge misconception about how tax deductions work.

"It's like that Shitts Creek episode where [David] says, 'The government pays for it,'" she told Yahoo Finance.

"Aussies think if they go out and spend $2,000 on a laptop, they'll get $2,000 back."

In that TV show, a character bought loads of expensive items because he thought he could just write it off and didn't have to pay for it.

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How do tax deductions work?

Tax deductions are done to reduce your taxable income and you can only claim something back if it's for work purposes.

This type of tax deduction usually only benefits those in the top tax bracket, as they get the most back from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

The top marginal tax rate is 47 per cent, meaning for every dollar you spend that's tax deductible, you can get up to 47 cents back in your pocket.

For those on lower tax brackets, the savings will be much less.

Not only will you only get a few cents in the dollar back on items you claim as a tax deduction, if it's also for personal use, then you'll need to work out the ratio between work-related and personal-related and deduct that from your claim.

So, you might not get much in your refund and then you're stuck with an item you might not have needed.

Lennon said, while it's great to get the tax refund earlier rather than later, you don't have to rush to buy something before June 30.

"You're just playing with the timing," she said. "We're not actually saving or minimising. We're delaying."

If you buy something after June 30, you can just claim it as a deduction at the end of next year and still get the money back.