eWorking/Working From Home

Accrual Intentions

Hi bit of advice needed if possible here, trying to help my Dad out and see if he can get any sort of refund.

He is employed full-time and has been working from home for 4 years now and uses skype and email to send documents and communicate with his head office. He doesn't receive any expenses payments from his employer other than they pay for the broadband.

Surely he should be able to claim for some expenses and off-set that against his income and receive a refund?

I have tried to do a bit of research on this on the Revenue website and have found this document on 'eWorking':
http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/it69.pdf

It gives me the impression that he could claim a flat €3.20 a day expense rather than trying to actually work out his expenses. Would this be correct? Could he back date it for four years?

Any advice is appreciated and if anyone thinks there is a more tax efficient way of trying to do it then please suggest.

Thanks.

barneystinson

This seems to be a common source of confusion for people, more so in the area of motor expenses - the simple answer is NO, he cannot claim a flat €3.20 per day. The reason being that the leaflet says that €3.20 is the amount an employer may pay without deducting PAYE and PRSI.

So strictly speaking, you / he should sit down and try to estimate what his overheads are in relation to this eworking; phone, broadband, stationery, ink, electricity, heating, wear & tear on personal computer equipment etc... and if you find it works out at more than (€3.20 x No. of Days he has eworked), then he can claim the higher amount.

However, in reality, I would say it's unlikely he'll have much problem if he submits a claim based on the €3.20 per day he should be OK, but maybe just make sure you can come up with a calculation of the above actual expenses to justify the claim if it is queried (which it might be, as these claims are probably not very commonplace yet).

And yes, he can backdate any claim to 2007 (a 2006 claim would've had to be made before 31/12/2010).

Accrual Intentions

Thanks for your reply. Could you tell me what form he would use to make the claim?

Just to add another little complication to it we live in the North would that have any affect on it? Obviously he is completely registered to work in the South etc. (also I'm fully aware of his obligations to the UK Revenue).

trotter_inc

Can I hop in on this thread? I was going to create a new thread but my question is very closely related.

I'm a full-time software engineer and I usually work from home on average 2 days per week. This is the first time I've heard about being able to claim expenses for working from home.

This is a really basic question but if I approach my employer and enquire about claiming this expense it means that the employer will have to pay me the money, right? It doesn't come from the revenue? The reason I ask is that I'm afraid my employer won't like having to pay this expense to me seeing as it was me who requested to work from home. I know he has a legal obligation to pay it, but he might not like it and I'm afraid he'll ask me to stop working from home.