According to Irish tax experts, there are thousands of people in Ireland who have yet to claim working from home tax back.
If during the Covid-19 pandemic it was essential for you to work from home, you could be entitled to up to €100 per year under the Work From Home tax relief.
According Taxback.com’s Taxpayer Sentiment Survey, 80% of those who are eligible still haven’t applied for it.
Speaking about the findings, Barry Cahill of Taxback.com said: “Just 90,000 people made a claim for tax relief for working from home expenses as of May this year – so just 10% of those who are eligible.
“In our own survey, only 17% of the respondents who work from home said they had claimed the relief.
“We have been advising any clients working from home to collate their bills and claim this relief.
“Anyone not doing so is missing out on ‘free money’, and while the amounts may be small, it’s hard to understand why anyone would not want this money in their pocket instead of leaving it with the taxman."
If your employer does not make payment of €3.20 or pays you less than your allowable costs, you can claim Remote Working Relief.
You can claim for:
- 10% of the cost of electricity and heat incurred (based on the number of days worked at home over the year)
- 30% of the cost of broadband, based on the number of days worked at home over the year.
You can only claim for the days you worked from home as a remote worker, you cannot include:
- weekends or public holidays you did not have to work on
- days you took as annual leave
- days that you brought work home outside of normal working hours.
To calculate your electricity and heat remote working costs:
- multiply your allowable utility bills by the number of remote working days
- divided by 365 (when calculating relief for 2020 divide by 366)
- multiply by 10% (0.1).
To calculate your broadband remote working cost:
- multiply your bill by the number of remote working days
- divided by 365 (when calculating relief for 2020 divide by 366)
- multiply by 30% (0.3).
