Working From Home Megathread

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118525646#Comment_118525646

Every thread has its misogynist.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118525756#Comment_118525756

You do if you want to avoid nasty surprises down the line. This has been a hot issue for contractors in recent years, so any business would be foolish to go down this road without clearance.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118525972#Comment_118525972

Anything you can thing of that relates to issues working from home you brIng up.

Now that your allowed back to office it's more fecking nonsense from ya.

FlubberJones

Did full time in the office last week and have started again this week, very few in here though.

Its very convenient for me and with the canteen now open I see no reason to work from the home unless I need to be there for some reason

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118525891#Comment_118525891

Nothing to do with your anti work from home agenda no?

big syke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118525972#Comment_118525972

Ye its not a hot issue for businesses at all, contractors mayb but they are independant and should have their affairs in order tax and otherwise.

For an employee, like me pre and post covid, its a perk I get, for example, a tax saver travel ticket paid for by the company and grossed up so I do not need to pay for my travel at all. No clearance required and revenue would point in the direction to the webpage i shared if a company is unprofessional enough to go asking such a basic tax question.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118526157#Comment_118526157

Just keep your fingers in your ears, and pretend everything is rosy, so.

La, la, la, la, la, la, la,.... if you can't hear, it isn't happening.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118526276#Comment_118526276

Your the one in la la land.

So paranoid that you think up of every possible excuse to stop work from home and none of them are actual issues.

Absolute Zero

This thread is full of wind up merchants 😆😂

sergioaguero

when ye are all finished there fighting with other..... anyone know anything about this

is there any sign of the new 100 trip tax saver ticket coming in? Was talks about it a year ago and still nothing. bit of a joke at this stage. Train prices are a rip off and there is no need for the annual tax saver ticket as will just be in the office 2 days a week max

https://www.finegael.ie/move-towards-flexible-tax-saver-commuter-tickets-picks-up-speed-mcgahon/

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118526157#Comment_118526157

It's not my issue. I didn't bring it up. Someone else suggested that they could get paid expenses to travel to their office. I just queried it.

Isn't that the way these discussion board things work?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118526225#Comment_118526225

The issue was with contractors claiming that their home was their place of work, and claiming expenses for their daily or regular visits to their office, which really was their place of work. Revenue came down hard on this in recent years. Here's some discussion on this.

With WFH, we're in new, unchartered territory. Which is again why I asked if they had clearance from Revenue. You're broadly right in that Revenue won't give individual interpretations, but I thought maybe they had expert tax advice on this.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118526452#Comment_118526452

Nothing yet, but its not ruled out so I'm guessing an announcement will be made at some point over the next 3 months as hybrid becomes the norm for many.

Was just talking to a friend who is moving to a new role which means she's to move from fully remote to hybrid, 3 days a week onsite. She commented that the majority of roles in her place are going to have hybrid/remote embedded as an option from now on. Only the few that want/need fully onsite will be that way

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118526702#Comment_118526702

i would imagine most companies with office staff will offer hybrid, the general consensus from people i speak to in my peer group is a min of 3 days in. I have started with a start up late last year and everyone is keen to get into an office based environment but i think most see the benefit in having a day or two from home aswell so itll be interesting to see where we land (our physical office wont be available to us until Q2 so we will see)

JDD

The commute costs are definitely an expense I am not looking forward to. I paid €40 a month after tax pre-covid for a tax saver ticket, and I'll be paying close to that for two days commute the office without the tax saver ticket.

I work for a large employer, public sector. I'm not revenue-generating and neither are 99% of my colleagues, but neither could they offshore our jobs as a) for my particular job you need an Irish-specific qualification and b) you would need to be available to do some on-site work at short notice, so no worries about someone abroad taking the job.

I have seen no difference in productivity between in-office and WFH. The slackers are still the slackers. The work horses are still the work horses. We had exactly the same number of outcomes in 2020/2021 as we did in 2019. There is a little bit of silo-ing but nothing that a flexible hybrid arrangement couldn't fix.

We've been told we have to be in the office for 50% of the time in any given month. I'm not sure how that is going to work in reality (3 days one week, 2 days the next? How will that work for people's childcare?). I am hoping we will settle at two days in, three days out.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118515858#Comment_118515858

You have just listed the steps right there in one post. I rest my case, I have seen it done by plenty of small agencies and larger ones. So again, WFH/Anywhere wins.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118522373#Comment_118522373

Hmmmm, I will call bull on that one as well, like most of the things you post.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118526648#Comment_118526648

With WFH, we're in new, unchartered territory. Which is again why I asked if they had clearance from Revenue. You're broadly right in that Revenue won't give individual interpretations, but I thought maybe they had expert tax advice on this.

Absent new legislation , we really aren't though.

Current legislation talks about "Normal place of work" and it says

The normal place of work is where your employee works on a day to day basis. This may not always be your (the employer’s) base. Your business may have additional bases elsewhere. In this case, the normal place of work may not be the same for all of your employees.

Usually, you will provide the facilities your employees need to perform their duties at the normal place of work.

Your employee's home is not usually regarded as their normal place of work. An exception to this is where there is an 'objective requirement' that their duties be carried out at home. Their duties have to be carried out at home because they cannot be carried out elsewhere.

It is not an objective requirement if:

Your employee merely carries out, or chooses to carry out, their duties at home

The duties carried out are incidental (minor or administrative).

That seems pretty clear to me - WFH is a choice, so your home cannot be listed as your "place of work".

Now it may well be different if a company has no physical presence in Ireland and you are hired on those terms , but for the vast vast majority , regardless of WFH status your home cannot be your official place of work.

I can't see the legislation being changed , IBEC et al would lose it completely.

Rather than all the guessing regarding taxation, might be a good idea to start a thread on the taxation forum to engage with the folks who know a lot more about it

https://www.boards.ie/categories/taxation

Teyla Emmagan

We haven't been told anything yet, I am sure they have no idea to be honest. Most importantly, they got rid of most of our office space so they can only physically sit about 40% of us now apparently. So I am hoping for a day a week in the office, if I have to.

It's the bus I am dreading more than anything else. Not just the total waste of time of it all, but the general public. But no panic yet.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118525891#Comment_118525891

How would he know if you are a woman or not? 🧐

Ohmeha

Most people I know heard nothing from their employers today, the few who did it was more of an acknowledgement that the new regulations are being reviewed and staff will be updated. Definitely a feeling alot of employers will not be in any hurry to send staff back into packed social distance free offices with an anticipated increase in cases again in a few weeks

Shuffl_in

Heard nothing (public sector) but I'm sure we will during the week, to begin Monday. Every email mentions the person with poor internet, no home office space with kids running around screaming and a desire to get us all back to the wonderful office. No acknowledgement of the polls which favour a WFH/blended arrangement, the lack of commuting (time and costs). No acknowledgement of the mental health benefits many have experienced.

Very frustrating.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118527272#Comment_118527272

This is going to come up more and more over the next few months, employers who just blindly charge ahead and show no consideration to the actual wishes of employees, regardless of their stance on wfh/hybrid/onsite, will end up losing people.

CBCTer

We have been told to be back in the office on 31st January full time, no phase out and no consideration to have a day wfh. I would love to have one day wfh as it will allow me to attend appointment without having to take time from work off as I will be able to schedule them after work as no commute, if I am in work, I need to finish an hour earlier (taken from annual leave) just to attend a gp appointment. Our department have been working from home mainly from the past two years with no issue, our performance hasn’t been reduced because of wfh, we all adapted pretty quick to the new situation. But we have been told that our position won’t allow wfh despite having doing it for nearly 2 years.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118527398#Comment_118527398

Exactly the sort of situation the new legislation should be able to tackle....hopefully, yet to be seen what it actually contains

horgan_p

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118527398#Comment_118527398

If you are in a position to - vote with your feet.

I work in tech and recruiters apologise if the prospective employer wont do WFH.

Work should be a thing you do, not a place you go.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118527102#Comment_118527102

I think it was explained very well by the poster to be honest. The revenue guidance is clear.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118526225#Comment_118526225

Just coming back to this, your employer pays for your tax saver ticket and the bike.

Makes no sense.

Say a tax saver costs 1k. The net cost to a high rate tax payer is 520 euro.

For the company it's costing 1,000 plus tax on notional extra income of 1k. So something like 1,550 give or take.

They are incurring 1550 to give you a benefit of 520. It would make more sense to give you an extra once off bonus of just over 1k to pay for your own ticket.

big syke

The benefit is 1k I.e the price of the ticket.

They pay the 1k and the tax

They would need to pay you 2k fornyou to buy your own ticket .

Infoanon

Anecdotally I am hearing very few companies have made any sort of announcement today , reasons include Covid is still out there and Directors have a responsibility for the health and safety of their staff, the official guidance is still to have social distancing in the workplace (it hasn't been updated ) and last but not least a WRC decision a few months ago which has huge implications for companies not allowing WFH in scenarios such as child minding.

It's interesting to note Leo Varadkers comment tonight "employers will be more likely to allow working from home for fear of being brought to the WRC " .

Initial legislation is due with the cabinet tomorrow, the mood music appears to have shifted to those who can work from home should be allowed .

All could change but that WRC case is a warning to all employers and no one would want the potential bad publicity that could come with such a case .