How To Claim Work From Home Expenses

If you're working remotely, you may be able to claim tax relief on the additional costs of working from home, including electricity, heat and broadband.

Citizens Information have detailed exactly how to go about claiming a tax relief at the end of the year. Here is everything you need to know;

How much can I claim?

You may have extra costs when you are working from home including heating, electricity and broadband costs. Your employer can pay you a contribution towards these costs or you can make a claim for tax relief at the end of the year.

If your employer pays you an allowance towards these expenses, you can get up to €3.20 per day without paying any tax, PRSI or USC on it. If your employer pays more than €3.20 per day to cover expenses, you pay tax, PRSI and USC as normal on the amount above €3.20. You should note that employers are not legally obliged to make this payment to their employees.

If your employer does not pay you an allowance for your expenses, you can make a claim for tax relief at the end of the year. You will get money back from the taxes you paid.

Your refund of tax is based on:

- How many days you worked from home

- The cost of the expenses

- Revenue’s agreed rate for calculating the cost of running a home office

Revenue’s rate for the cost of running a home office is 10% of the cost of electricity and heating. This means that you can claim 10% of the total amount of allowable utility bills against your taxes. You can also claim 30% of broadband costs for the tax year 2020. This applies for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can only claim for the days that you work from home. This does not include times you may have brought work home to do outside your normal working hours.

If your employer pays you an allowance towards your expenses, the amount paid is deducted from the amount you can claim back from Revenue.

Example

Mary works from home for 6 months while her office is closed due to the COVID-19 emergency. During that 6 months her household bills for heating and electricity come to €1000 and her broadband comes to €300. At the end of the year she can claim tax back on expenses of:

- €100 for heating and electricity (10% of €1000)

- €90 for broadband (30% of €300)

- €190 in total

The amount she gets back depends on her rate of tax. If she pays tax at the higher tax rate of 40% she will get €76 back from her taxes (40% of €190). If she pays tax at the lower rate of 20%, she will receive €38 back (20% of €190).

How to apply

You can claim tax relief online using Revenue’s myAccount service. You can also access the myAccount service on mobile and tablet devices using Revenue’s RevApp.

To complete an Income Tax return online use the following steps:

1. Sign in to myAccount

2. Click on ‘Review your tax’ link in PAYE Services

3. Select the Income Tax return for the relevant tax year

4. Select ‘Other PAYE Expenses’ in the ‘Tax Credits and Reliefs’ page and insert the amount of expense at the ‘Amount Claimed’ section

You must be able to account for each expense you intend to claim. This means keeping a record of all receipts and bills. You should keep all documentation relating to your claim for 6 years from the end of the tax year to which the claim relates.

You may also need a letter from your employer stating that you work from home.

More information can also be found here.

Take care and best wishes from

The JobAlert.ie Team