Are You Working From Home? You Can Claim Tax Back From That

If you, like thousands of others across the country have been working from home for the last week or so, you may be entitled to tax back. 

Tax refund specialist Taxback.com has said that employees are entitled to money back on many work-related expenses. They also said that spending this time working from home over the next upcoming weeks (and possibly months) means that many of us will incur additional costs that we may not be aware of. 

These include heating, electricity, and broadband-related expenses.

For many thousands of us, this has been our first experience with working from home, and with that, are unaware of the relief that is available. 

The CEO of taxback.com, Joanna Murphy stated that from a tax perspective, an employer can spend roughly €3 a day on their employee to cover these additional costs. 

This payment is tax free, which means they won’t be deducting PAYE, PRSI or USC from that amount. However, employers do not have the legal obligation to pay that amount. 

If that is the case, Joanna says:

“Even if your employer doesn’t and/or isn’t in a position to pay the €3.20, these expenses are eligible for tax relief meaning the home-worker can claim tax back on them,”

“Any claims made will need to be supported with evidence in the form of receipts and possibly a letter from your employer stating that you do, in fact, work from home and that they do not reimburse you for these expenses,” she continued. 

The refund you will receive will be based on only a small portion of your overall expenses. Meaning, that taken into consideration will be the fact that the use of utilities is for both person and work purposes. 

For more information visit the Citizens Information website here.

• Coronavirus
• Working From Home