Working From Home Allowance

Foggy Jew

Are civil servants entitled to the €3.80 a day working from home allowance? If so, how do you claim it?

dashoonage

jaysus.

KaneToad

Foggy Jew wrote: »

Are civil servants entitled to the €3.80 a day working from home allowance? If so, how do you claim it?

It would be a brave man who tried to claim it. Irrespective of entitlement...

Tefral

KaneToad wrote: »

It would be a brave man who tried to claim it. Irrespective of entitlement...

Agreed. Setting yourself up for an audit!

Sleeper12

No travel time & no travel expenses. I can't see anyone selfish enough to try and claim this in the present climate. For people living in the real world they will see families going back to the same kind of hurt experienced 10 years ago.

callaway92

Replies a bit unfair - If he’s entitled to it, he’s entitled to it.

He’d be using extra electricity, heating maybe, maybe having to buy extra data for phone/internet etc.

KaneToad

Tefral wrote: »

Agreed. Setting yourself up for an audit!

Civil servants would be PAYE workers, unlikely to be audited. More likely to be viewed in a very dim light by line manager. And if entitled to this payment, it's more likely than not that govt will act to ensure civil servants lose the entitlement for the duration of the pandemic. So OP will have stuck their head over the parapet for no financial reward and will, possibly, display themselves in a very unflattering light.

Millem

OP I doubt they would give you the allowance but you can claim tax relief instead.

Turtwig

Presumably just about everyone remote working at home can claim these. Why the line would be drawn different for civil servants is beyond me. Especially when many would have less take home pay than subsidised covid payments.

Slydice

It's a tax relief. Citizens info have a page with details about it here:
https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/health_and_safety/working_at_home.html#l742d3

E-working and tax relief
Employees working from home can claim tax relief. This payment is to cover expenses such as heating and electricity costs.

Revenue allows an employer to make payments up to €3.20 per day to employees who satisfy the conditions for the relief, without deducting PAYE, PRSI, or USC.

If your employer pays you more than €3.20 per day, the payment will be taxable. Your employer must keep a record of payments made.

You may instead choose to make a claim online at the end of the year. To do this, you must submit receipts to your local Revenue office using MyEnquiries available through MyAccount.

These arrangements only apply to e-worker employees. They do not apply to workers who bring work home outside of normal working hours.

E-working is when you work:

• At home on a full- or part-time basis
• Part of the time at home and the remainder in the normal place of work

If you use part of your home for e-working, your home remains your Principal Private Residence and you are not liable for CGT when you sell it.

You can get more information from Revenue.

Irish_rat

So basically 3.20 a day from my employer for remote login at home is tax free.

rn

No, you can't claim 3.20 per day.

Your employer can pay you 3.20 per day on top of normal salary tax free. If your employer doesn't pay anything special on top of salary then you can self claim.

You can calculate a self claim. See example in the e working tax booklet in chapter 2.

I'm your average paye worker. Firstly I have to have a letter from work directing me to work at home. An email will do. Then at end of year I add up my electricity, heating and broadband bills. You've to have receipts for all. Divide the total by 365 to get a per day expense rate. In my current house, I've roughly calculated it at 7 euro per day.

Revenue allow 10% for a home office expense. So I claim 70c per working day. If my last in the office day was Friday 13th March, I've 11 working days in March to claim, 7.70. If I work at home all April there's 20 days claim, as for me good Friday and Easter Bank Holiday are holidays. I can claim €14 for April.

uck51js9zml2yt

AulWan wrote: »

I've been a civil servant for over 30 years and I've never heard of a working from home allowance. Nor have I even heard any suggestion of one being paid!

Given the circumstances, I wouldn't expect one. I find I'm saving money working from home. I didn't realise how much I spent on petrol and lunch every day, not to mention the take away coffees. More then covers any extra heating or electricity, I'd expect.

No allowances are being paid by the CS for working from home.

rn

However you can still claim something, once you have written communication that you've been directed to work from home and you keep all your utility bills for the year to allow you to calculate your entitlement. You will do this claim in 2021.

MarkR

Good to see the begrudgers are still working from home! I do an IT job for a University. I'm working from home. I'm using my mobile, my laptop, my screen, my power, heat, and broadband. But screw that, I'm public sector, so suck it up?

I haven't claimed anything, but I don't see any issue with those that do.

rn

AFAIK it doesn't matter if you're public, private or semi private. If your employer has sent you to work from home, you can claim 10% of your daily household light, heat and broadband.

Or your employer can choose to give you 3.20 per day tax free. However not too many employers will have spare cash to pay the 3.20.

LFC Murphy

It states Non-Commercial Semi-State on:

https://revenue.ie/en/corporate/communications/covid19/temporary-covid-19-wage-subsidy-scheme.aspx

Where is there a list of Commercial and Non-Commercial Semi States?

rn

Isn't that a totally different scheme?

Millem

rn wrote: »

No, you can't claim 3.20 per day.

Your employer can pay you 3.20 per day on top of normal salary tax free. If your employer doesn't pay anything special on top of salary then you can self claim.

You can calculate a self claim. See example in the e working tax booklet in chapter 2.

I'm your average paye worker. Firstly I have to have a letter from work directing me to work at home. An email will do. Then at end of year I add up my electricity, heating and broadband bills. You've to have receipts for all. Divide the total by 365 to get a per day expense rate. In my current house, I've roughly calculated it at 7 euro per day.

Revenue allow 10% for a home office expense. So I claim 70c per working day. If my last in the office day was Friday 13th March, I've 11 working days in March to claim, 7.70. If I work at home all April there's 20 days claim, as for me good Friday and Easter Bank Holiday are holidays. I can claim €14 for April.

I heard this being explained on the radio....so say for 11 days when you get 70c x 11 days = €7.70....is it really 40% (if you pay 40% tax) of €7.70 = €3.08 that you receive?

rn

That is correct, you only get the tax you paid earning the original claimed amount back. They only allow you to apportion 10% of house hold cost to the home Office
So it's miniscule really.

The problem we all face however is that our household costs are significantly up as the house is usually empty during the day, so work from home is triggering more than 10% of my household costs. It's closer to 70% as we've heating on for longer and we're eating more meals at home.

beauf

But its balanced by your commuting costs etc.

rn

In my particular case my commuting running cost is about €30 pcm on fuel. I've a very short commute. The other commuting costs are depreciation, car insurance and car tax. They're fixed and I'm paying them regardless of being at home or in the office. But for most ppl, their commuting running cost is multiples of mine and they are saving that now.

However I argue that home office work creates more that 10% of the household bill because the house would be ordinarily empty, meaning much reduced bills.

Regardless unless your employer is paying you the tax free top up for working from home, the effort to claim a really tiny amount of money doesn't make it worth it. Essentially 20% of 10% of your household bills on the days you work.

barneystinson

rn wrote: »

In my particular case my commuting running cost is about €30 pcm on fuel. I've a very short commute. The other commuting costs are depreciation, car insurance and car tax. They're fixed and I'm paying them regardless of being at home or in the office. But for most ppl, their commuting running cost is multiples of mine and they are saving that now.

However I argue that home office work creates more that 10% of the household bill because the house would be ordinarily empty, meaning much reduced bills.

Regardless unless your employer is paying you the tax free top up for working from home, the effort to claim a really tiny amount of money doesn't make it worth it. Essentially 20% of 10% of your household bills on the days you work.

Well you’re free to calculate the actual cost to you in any way that’s reasonable.

If your electricity and heating unit usage is 70% higher in Mar/Apr 2020 versus 2019 and all other things are broadly equal, then arguably a sizeable chunk of that is due to working from home.

Worth bearing in mind though, that whether you were working at home or not, since the start of lockdown you’d be stuck at home all day and eating all meals at home anyway.

cython

beauf wrote: »

But its balanced by your commuting costs etc.

Unless like me you're out of pocket on the double due to having an annual ticket prepaid for commute that I'm now not allowed to use, and the increased expenses of work from home.

However, the relief available is sufficiently small that unless I'm WFH for probably half the year or more, the time and effort of claiming it probably outweighs the reward.

callaway92

beauf wrote: »

But its balanced by your commuting costs etc.

What if you usually walk/cycle to work?

Mrs OBumble

rn wrote: »

It's closer to 70% as we've heating on for longer and we're eating more meals at home.

Eh? You would be eating no matter where you were. And unless your work provides free food, then eating at home is the cheapest option.

rn

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Eh? You would be eating no matter where you were. And unless your work provides free food, then eating at home is the cheapest option.

They do heavily subsidised. And my wife's company do same.

Scolly

I made contact with revenue regarding this tax relief lately as I was unaware of it, I was also asking with respect to backdating of the relief as I have been working from home almost completely for a number of year, and I provided them a letter from my employment to validate this, this was the reponse:


If you are not in receipt of any tax free payment from your employer in respect of e-working, you may make a claim to Revenue for expenses incurred 'wholly, exclusively and necessarily' in the performance of the duties of your employment, eg Utilities such as heating and electricity.

Please note this is an end of year claim and should be claimed after the end of each year.

In order to make your claim, you will need:

- The number of days in the year you work from home

- The annual amount paid on allowable utility bills, eg. Gas, electricity and broadband.


Please provide the above details for 2016-2018 in a response to this enquiry and we will amend the records on your behalf.

You can claim 2019 relief by completing an Income Tax Return in MyAccount.


- Under PAYE Services, click Review your Tax 2016-2019


- Select Income Tax Return for relevant year


- In the 'Claim for Tax Credits and Reliefs' page select 'Allowable Deductions incurred in Employment' and insert the amount of expense at the 'Amount' section

To calculate the portion of utility bills that apply to eworking days please use the following formula:


Allowable utility bills x No of e-working days


365 days

Revenue will grant relief on 10% of this amount.

Please retain all documentation relating to your claim for a period of 6 years.

The_Chap

Been working from home for six years and never claimed this, figured as I’ve no commuting costs and the evidence you need to produce to prove the claim wasn’t worth the return

The Bishop Basher

The_Chap wrote: »

Been working from home for six years and never claimed this, figured as I’ve no commuting costs and the evidence you need to produce to prove the claim wasn’t worth the return

Likewise. I’ve been working from home for 4 years now and the benefits in work life balance and lack of commuting more then make up for any potential additional expenses.

I’m not sure what those additional expenses are though. We have a subsidised canteen in the office but it’s still much cheaper to eat at home. Heating might cost a little more but I just use a dimplex to heat one room as the house is usually otherwise empty.

I could claim for BB but I’d have it anyway so i don’t see why the company should pay.

Either way, I spend a lot less working from home when I factor everything in.

StupidLikeAFox

Found this example:

Peter works 2 months (60 days) from home and incurred utility bills in amount of €800 for these two months.

€800 x 10% (Revenue agreed proportion) =€80 attributed to the performance of his employment duties.

Relief available is either at 20% or 40% depending on personal circumstances, so either €16 or €32.

There are ~22 working days in a month so the 60 days above would realistically relate to just under 3 months. Sounds low but if you were able to maintain the records it could be worth around €130 to you at the end of the year for submitting a form

smelly sock

Foggy Jew wrote: »

Are civil servants entitled to the €3.80 a day working from home allowance? If so, how do you claim it?

No. Wow.

Like any worker in different sectors if we are using broadband etc for work we would be entitled to tax relief.

Lads don't let this thread gain traction. It's BS.

Thoie

I'd like to know how they decided that your "home office" is 10% of the house. I've been working from home for years, and I'd estimate that the "office" is responsible for about 20% of the utilities, based on floor space/number of people in the house/hours worked etc. But I've no idea how you'd go about telling Revenue that.

The_Chap

this is the Revenue response I got when enquiring a few years ago, which I duly took as a waste of time to try to claim a paltry amount that they would allow

€3.20 a day for me would be worth it x 240 working days

claiming a % of actual bills not so much, certainly not worth giving them a reason to check

Started my own company since then which covers the phone/broadband anyway so get more benefit from that



Dear X,

I refer to your recent email and apologise for the delay in responding.

Please note that if the employer does not pay such expenses to the employee, there is no automatic entitlement to claim the €3.20 per day in lieu of expenses. This does not prevent the employee from making an expenses claim where there is actual expenditure incurred, such as heating and electricity costs. The following is required:

* A breakdown of the number of days worked - at and/or in the office.

* Whether or not broadband is provided by the employer

I refer you to the Revenue Website

www.revenue.ie

Employing People

Employee Expenses

E-working and Home Workers


If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact this office.


Yours Sincerely


On behalf of ....


Inspector of Taxes

ted1

Irish_rat wrote: »

So basically 3.20 a day from my employer for remote login at home is tax free.

Covers electricity, heating , desk, chair , broadband , additional insurance premium , etc

Much more than just logging in remotely

ted1

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Eh? You would be eating no matter where you were. And unless your work provides free food, then eating at home is the cheapest option.

No way, As I’m constantly grazing when I’m at home. So much more expensive. I usually bring in overnight oats for breakfast and soup or sandwich for lunch.

ted1

LFC Murphy wrote: »

It states Non-Commercial Semi-State on:

https://revenue.ie/en/corporate/communications/covid19/temporary-covid-19-wage-subsidy-scheme.aspx

Where is there a list of Commercial and Non-Commercial Semi States?

Here are the commercial ones: https://www.audit.gov.ie/en/About-Us/WHO-WE-AUDIT/State-Bodies/

BronsonTB

Revenue have now updated the e-working and tax part of the Tax & Duty manual. The pdf (05-02-13) is on the right-hand side of the page at https://www.revenue.ie/en/employing-people/employee-expenses/e-working-and-home-workers/index.aspx

Example 4 on page 5 of the document relates to the €3.20 payment and Covid-19.

FloatingVoter

Give it to the OP. They'll be despised on their return by their colleagues who didn't get the choice. A short career lies ahead for this one. And you can't scrub toilets from your couch.

Foggy Jew

'Despised by my colleagues'. ????? Crikey, I've worked with people like you in the past. I thought that most of that belligerent begrudgery had been eliminated. God help your co-workers.
And this short career of which you speak? 37 years and counting.

The Bishop Basher

Foggy Jew wrote: »

'Despised by my colleagues'. ????? Crikey, I've worked with people like you in the past. I thought that most of that belligerent begrudgery had been eliminated. God help your co-workers.
And this short career of which you speak? 37 years and counting.

Did you claim it yet and how did it go down ?

Foggy Jew

The Bishop Basher wrote: »

Did you claim it yet and how did it go down ?

Nope. I’ll wait till I’m back in the office & see what my colleagues are doing.

barneystinson

Foggy Jew wrote: »

Nope. I’ll wait till I’m back in the office & see what my colleagues are doing.

Not sure what you mean by that.

Your OP was answered in the negative; the civil service isn’t paying the e-working allowance.

After that it’s up to each individual to make a claim on their own personal tax return.

MarkR

You'd be claiming tax relief. You're not standing in the middle of the canteen asking for more please. So many people giving out, when they clearly don't even know what they're talking about, I might even look into this claim stuff myself!

Thingymebob

The allowable utility bills refer to heating and electricity, but I doubt anyone could successfully work from home without broadband?

rn

Absolutely do include broadband, you'd be allowed include 10% from the days you worked at home in your calculations.

Millem

If two people in the same house are working from home is it only claimed by one person?
Thanks

snoopboggybog

Are people actually pushing their employers on this?

rn

I'm not 100% sure, but I can't see why each person can't claim it. The 10% allocation is based on a single room designated a "home/office", so if you've two people in same household working from home, effectively each has one room as an office and a higher proportion of bills can be apportioned to work.

Millem

snoopboggybog wrote: »

Are people actually pushing their employers on this?

No it’s nothing to do with your employers......it’s tax back from revenue.

snoopboggybog

Millem wrote: »

No it’s nothing to do with your employers......it’s tax back from revenue.

AHHH, definitely worth looking into so.