Claiming Tax Relief for E-Working

jos_kel · 04-01-2021 5:33pm #1

Hi,
Have been working from home since last March.
I believe I can claim €3.20 per day as tax relief.

When can I put in a claim?

Is it Feb 15th and I guess I'm claiming for each day from March to 31st Dec (that I worked)?

Jos

vandriver · 04-01-2021 5:37pm

jos_kel wrote: »

Hi,
Have been working from home since last March.
I believe I can claim €3.20 per day as tax relief.

When can I put in a claim?

Is it Feb 15th and I guess I'm claiming for each day from March to 31st Dec (that I worked)?

Jos

Unfortunately,you believe wrong.
Your employer may pay you up to €3.20 a day to work at home.
You can claim a percentage of your gas electric and broadband.

CramCycle · 04-01-2021 5:44pm

Nope, your employer can opt to pay you an extra €3.20 tax free every day you work from home (excludes days you take work home, this is where all your work is done from your home AFAIK). There is no obligation for them to do this.

You can however, claim the following tax relief if your employer does not pay you the €3.20/day:

- 10% of the cost of electricity and heat incurred (apportioned based on the number of days worked at home over the year)
- 30% of the cost of broadband incurred, (apportioned based on the number of days worked at home over the year).

This concession, commencing in the tax year 2020, will apply for the duration of the pandemic.

Details on how to work it out are here: https://www.revenue.ie/en/jobs-and-pensions/eworking/index.aspx

L1011 · 04-01-2021 5:47pm

The 3.20 is the tax free limit for an employer allowance if there is one- the amount for someone claiming themselves as tax relief is worked out different and depends on expenses. Its generally a lot lower.

What is allowable is 10% of heating, 10% of power and 30% of broadband bills for the year, for the number of days you worked only (and divided by the number of people paying them if its a house share/couple)

So if your energy bills were 4k and you paid the lot, and you worked 150 days from home, you can claim
((4,000*150)/365)*0.1 = 164
And if the broadband bills were 1k
((1,000*150)/365)*0.3 = 41

You can claim as soon as your 2020 tax is done on Revenue which it probably already is.

If you pay LPT and haven't told them what way you intend to pay this year, they will likely offset any refund up to the LPT amount off that bill!

I have to calculate this for my partner (most of the year) and myself (a whole 15 days, but its still worth getting it in with the MED1 etc) and have to figure out how to work out exactly what I paid in 2020 for bills as all run from mid-month dates. Presumably just divide them by the number of days.

EverythingGood · 04-01-2021 8:09pm

CramCycle wrote: »

Nope, your employer can opt to pay you an extra €3.20 tax free every day you work from home (excludes days you take work home, this is where all your work is done from your home AFAIK). There is no obligation for them to do this.

You can however, claim the following tax relief if your employer does not pay you the €3.20/day:

- 10% of the cost of electricity and heat incurred (apportioned based on the number of days worked at home over the year)
- 30% of the cost of broadband incurred, (apportioned based on the number of days worked at home over the year).

This concession, commencing in the tax year 2020, will apply for the duration of the pandemic.

Details on how to work it out are here: https://www.revenue.ie/en/jobs-and-pensions/eworking/index.aspx

You get 20% of the 10%. I'll get a whopping €40 odd for the year!

relax carry on · 04-01-2021 9:13pm

EverythingGood wrote: »

You get 20% of the 10%. I'll get a whopping €40 odd for the year!

Which is why employers really should be paying this to employees.

48 weeks by 5 days is 240 days per year for the average worker. That equates to a tax free payment of €768 that an employer could make to an employee each year if they paid the €3.20 per day.

In order for you to obtain a tax refund of 768 euro, you'd have to have €3840 to enter as the claimable amount in your tax return if you were a standard rate taxpayer. You'd need €1920 if you were a marginal rate taxpayer. Considering in a normal year the claimable amount is supposed to be 10% of your utility/broadband bills; that means you'd have to have utility/broadband bills of €38,400 or €19200 a year to end up with your €768 refund amount.

vandriver · 04-01-2021 11:35pm

My wife is saving at least 300 a month between diesel,tolls,car expenses and lunches.
I'm not complaining too loudly about 3.20 a day.

callaway92 · 04-01-2021 11:38pm

vandriver wrote: »

My wife is saving at least 300 a month between diesel,tolls,car expenses and lunches.
I'm not complaining too loudly about 3.20 a day.

Good on you.

Other people could perhaps do with getting it.

wench · 04-01-2021 11:41pm

Useful calculator here to see how many working days for a given interval.
https://www.timeanddate.com/date/workdays.html?d1=18&m1=03&y1=2020&d2=31&m2=12&y2=2020&ti=on&

jos_kel · 04-01-2021 11:46pm

vandriver wrote: »

My wife is saving at least 300 a month between diesel,tolls,car expenses and lunches.
I'm not complaining too loudly about 3.20 a day.

Each to their own.

screamer · 04-01-2021 11:53pm

Yep given that we’re saving money on travelling and childcare as we are allowed to WFH since last March, I also won’t be rocking the boat looking for extra money like this. My employer has been flexible and accommodating and is considering a hybrid working mode of office and home working for the future and I wouldn’t like to jeopardise that

vandriver · 04-01-2021 11:58pm

callaway92 wrote: »

Good on you.

Other people could perhaps do with getting it.

There can't be many people who's expenses have gone up through WFH.

jimmy86 · 05-01-2021 9:06am

vandriver wrote: »

There can't be many people who's expenses have gone up through WFH.

Well for one example, my girlfriend used to walk to work so had no travel expenses.

She's now working from home, so they heating is on from 8am-10pm rather than from 6pm-10pm, so the heating bills will be through the roof.

listermint · 05-01-2021 9:15am

vandriver wrote: »

My wife is saving at least 300 a month between diesel,tolls,car expenses and lunches.
I'm not complaining too loudly about 3.20 a day.

I know most people don't tend to think about these things but she might saving in petrol. But she's burning up the heating, using the electricity and eating food.

All of which would otherwise be done in the office written off as a business expense by her employer.

So.... To say it's not something to be concerned about would make you fiscally unaware.

GarIT · 05-01-2021 11:42am

jimmy86 wrote: »

Well for one example, my girlfriend used to walk to work so had no travel expenses.

She's now working from home, so they heating is on from 8am-10pm rather than from 6pm-10pm, so the heating bills will be through the roof.

It actually doesn't work like that luckily I guess. If the heating is off the house still cools during the day. So when she returns it has to heat longer to reach the acceptable temperature than it would if it was already warm and just keeping it warm.

CramCycle · 05-01-2021 11:50am

Would it have been beneficial if the Christmas bonus for an employee was paid via this €3.20 a day route, it would mean you weren't losing a huge chunk of change from your bonus if your a lower paid worker.

For those working at home full time, lets make it an even 200 working days, that's €640 tax free, which wouldn't be far of getting a €1000 bonus.

Anyway, not that it could or would be done, but most of us would have been better off if we had our wages dropped by the €640 and paid it back as the tax exempt part. So basically no extra wages gross but far more net pay than the 10% would bring in.

L1011 · 05-01-2021 1:40pm

GarIT wrote: »

It actually doesn't work like that luckily I guess. If the heating is off the house still cools during the day. So when she returns it has to heat longer to reach the acceptable temperature than it would if it was already warm and just keeping it warm.

Its still works out as requiring more energy to keep it at that heat all day. I've noticed quite a significant increase in gas bills versus last year and that's even with a cheaper rate than last year

Electricity is also up with computer use and kettles.

thesimpsons · 05-01-2021 7:01pm

listermint wrote: »

I know most people don't tend to think about these things but she might saving in petrol. But she's burning up the heating, using the electricity and eating food.

All of which would otherwise be done in the office written off as a business expense by her employer.

So.... To say it's not something to be concerned about would make you fiscally unaware.

Whatever about heating and electricity hard to see how the food bill could be a business expense written off by employer :rolleyes:

Foweva Awone · 05-01-2021 7:49pm

thesimpsons wrote: »

Whatever about heating and electricity hard to see how the food bill could be a business expense written off by employer :rolleyes:

I'm guessing there's a subsidised canteen.

ted1 · 05-01-2021 7:56pm

vandriver wrote: »

There can't be many people who's expenses have gone up through WFH.

Mine had gone down , but the heating is now on for much much longer. As the house was rarely occupied during the day

CramCycle · 05-01-2021 8:18pm

Foweva Awone wrote: »

I'm guessing there's a subsidised canteen.

My partner's place has a fairly well stocked kitchen and regularly expensed lunches, I am very jealous, but its a culture thing, if it was my place it would be cleared out daily. It's how the other half lives.

Foweva Awone · 05-01-2021 8:26pm

CramCycle wrote: »

My partner's place has a fairly well stocked kitchen and regularly expensed lunches, I am very jealous, but its a culture thing, if it was my place it would be cleared out daily. It's how the other half lives.

I've worked places like that where we'd have expensed lunches at least once a week if not more, it's not all its cracked up to be, I'd rather cover my own lunch and have my break to myself, thank you very much!

#introvert

shmeee · 15-01-2021 2:28am

Spent the last half hour working out my e-working tax relief.

A grand total of €29 for 180 working days at home in 2020.

Was thinking maybe €50-ish in my head but when you get the calculator and bills out it isn't what it seems.

And then you've to upload all the receipts to go with it. I won't be going any further!

CramCycle · 15-01-2021 9:38am

Mine worked out as a total of 40euro. I didn't bother submitting the receipts though. If my name gets pulled out for an audit I might as they are all online in PDF but only doing it if asked.

ThumbTaxed · 15-01-2021 5:26pm

listermint wrote: »

I know most people don't tend to think about these things but she might saving in petrol. But she's burning up the heating, using the electricity and eating food.

All of which would otherwise be done in the office written off as a business expense by her employer.

So.... To say it's not something to be concerned about would make you fiscally unaware.

Some people will find anything to moan about.

ted1 · 15-01-2021 5:27pm

CramCycle wrote: »

Mine worked out as a total of 40euro. I didn't bother submitting the receipts though. If my name gets pulled out for an audit I might as they are all online in PDF but only doing it if asked.

235 for me..
Virgin broad band : 882 a year. /365*215*.3
Elec: 672 a year /365*215*.1
Gas: 908 /365*215*.1

Nigel Fairservice · 15-01-2021 6:02pm

I applied for mine last night, seemed fairly straight forward.

vandriver · 15-01-2021 9:31pm

ted1 wrote: »

235 for me..
Virgin broad band : 882 a year. /365*215*.3
Elec: 672 a year /365*215*.1
Gas: 908 /365*215*.1

Then multiplied by your marginal tax rate
So €47 or €94

CramCycle · 15-01-2021 10:08pm

ted1 wrote: »

235 for me..
Virgin broad band : 882 a year. /365*215*.3
Elec: 672 a year /365*215*.1
Gas: 908 /365*215*.1

Balls, forgot the broadband. Back of the envelope calculations looks like I missed out on €45. LOL, my broadband would have gotten me more than that Gas and Electricity combined, even though the Gas and Electricity would have been more of a cost on working from home.

ted1 · 16-01-2021 12:13am

CramCycle wrote: »

Balls, forgot the broadband. Back of the envelope calculations looks like I missed out on €45. LOL, my broadband would have gotten me more than that Gas and Electricity combined, even though the Gas and Electricity would have been more of a cost on working from home.

Yep , madness.
My house usually isn’t heated during the day. That’s the biggest additional expense. Broadband is fixed regardless of traffic so hasn’t changed in price

ClaptonBay · 17-01-2021 6:10pm

I read somewhere the bills had to be in your name to claim? surely that's not right? what if you're sharing an apt or for a couple sharing the bills would only be in one persons name? anyone have clarity on this?

CramCycle · 17-01-2021 6:31pm

ClaptonBay wrote: »

I read somewhere the bills had to be in your name to claim? surely that's not right? what if you're sharing an apt or for a couple sharing the bills would only be in one persons name? anyone have clarity on this?

I presume linked to your address. All the bills are in my partner's name as they needed a bill for something back when we signed up. I can't see that being an issue unless your audited, and if you are, a simple note saying that you and Mr. David Anonymous are flatmates should be all you need. Only issue it might raise is if both of you try and claim the whole 10%, so as long as your not breaking any rules you should be grand.

GarIT · 17-01-2021 7:10pm

If someone else's name is on the bill the most you can realisticly claim is 50% of the bill.

The amount you can claim has to be the amount you personally paid. You must have given the named person on the bill the money to pay specifically for this and you can be asked to prove that you have given them the amount you are claiming.

Revenue aren't going to believe someone else's name is on the bill but you paid more than half.

CramCycle · 17-01-2021 7:31pm

Personally I can't see them giving a sh1t unless it's suspicious. Our house bills are in my partner's name but paid out of my account because they needed the bills in their name for some stupid prove where you live thing. If Revenue dispute it, I can send them my bank statement to show them it came out of my account.

In fact, and someone can clarify, I think example 2 clarifies this with an example of a house share, this would be no different to a couple living together and one is a stay at home parent and the working parent happens to pay the bill in its entirety, even if it isn't in their name.

Long story short, if you pay the entire bill, then you can claim the entire bill. Once you can access the bills, provide them and make a statement explaining the portion you pay, then I think you are absolutely fine.

It also just occurred to me the broadband is in my daughter's name, she has moved out but we haven't changed the name, just the linked payment account.

GarIT · 17-01-2021 8:43pm

CramCycle wrote: »

Personally I can't see them giving a sh1t unless it's suspicious. Our house bills are in my partner's name but paid out of my account because they needed the bills in their name for some stupid prove where you live thing. If Revenue dispute it, I can send them my bank statement to show them it came out of my account.

In fact, and someone can clarify, I think example 2 clarifies this with an example of a house share, this would be no different to a couple living together and one is a stay at home parent and the working parent happens to pay the bill in its entirety, even if it isn't in their name.

Long story short, if you pay the entire bill, then you can claim the entire bill. Once you can access the bills, provide them and make a statement explaining the portion you pay, then I think you are absolutely fine.

It also just occurred to me the broadband is in my daughter's name, she has moved out but we haven't changed the name, just the linked payment account.

Yeah if the money is coming out of your account directly you probably could make a case for it.

Revenue do random checks and there are fines for getting it wrong. And getting it wrong guarantees it will be checked on you every year in the future.

kennethsmyth · 17-01-2021 10:13pm

GarIT wrote: »

It actually doesn't work like that luckily I guess. If the heating is off the house still cools during the day. So when she returns it has to heat longer to reach the acceptable temperature than it would if it was already warm and just keeping it warm.

Nope, you need to check your physics again. Houses leak heat so it doesnt work the way you have explained.

Sheep Shagger · 18-01-2021 11:26pm

Is this article accurate in thst you have to submit copies of bills for such a ****ty amount?

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/0115/1189904-explainer-how-to-claim-work-from-home-tax-relief/

Seemingly only 5% of employers are paying the daily amount......not my multi national employer anyway:(

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/0115/1189904-explainer-how-to-claim-work-from-home-tax-relief/

Nigel Fairservice · 18-01-2021 11:45pm

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

Is this article accurate in thst you have to submit copies of bills for such a ****ty amount?

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/0115/1189904-explainer-how-to-claim-work-from-home-tax-relief/

Seemingly only 5% of employers are paying the daily amount......not my multi national employer anyway:(

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/0115/1189904-explainer-how-to-claim-work-from-home-tax-relief/

You don't have to but you'll need them if they select your application for review.

I spent roughly €1400 on allowable bills during the time I was working from home and ended up getting €22 back. It was a lot of work for little return. Not sure I would have bothered if I had known it was going to be so little.

CramCycle · 19-01-2021 12:03am

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

Is this article accurate in thst you have to submit copies of bills for such a ****ty amount?

Got mine today without submitting anything

dennyk · 19-01-2021 6:39pm

If you upload your bills, then you no longer have to retain copies of them yourself. If you don't, you'll have to keep copies of all of the relevant bills for six years yourself, and if you get audited and can't produce them, you're going to be in some hot water.

Note that most providers only give access to bills for the last year or two, so if you're signed up for paperless billing, make sure you download copies of your bills (and make backups of said copies); don't expect to be able to just log in and obtain copies of them from your provider (at least not without a lot of hassle and likely some expense in admin fees) if Revenue come knocking in 2024...

silverspoon · 19-01-2021 7:41pm

A (possibly stupid) question on this tax relief - can you claim the amount for heating/electricity for all of 2020 even if the direct debit for Nov-Dec is due this month? Or is it only on amounts paid in 2020?

vandriver · 19-01-2021 9:50pm

silverspoon wrote: »

A (possibly stupid) question on this tax relief - can you claim the amount for heating/electricity for all of 2020 even if the direct debit for Nov-Dec is due this month? Or is it only on amounts paid in 2020?

I just counted the 6 bills including the latest one that ran into January.
I suppose you could apportion last Christmas's bill,and also do the same with this Christmas's bill,but the result will probably be near enough the same.

Fireball81 · 19-01-2021 11:08pm

CramCycle wrote: »

Got mine today without submitting anything

So the article is wrong, like most tax stuff you only need receipts if you get audited.

Sounds like peanuts too

Shane my employer isbf giving us the €3.20 per day directly...oh well.

Irish Gunner · 20-01-2021 11:51am

WFH since the start of all this

So got my Gas, Electricity and Broadband bills from the suppliers as company not paying the daily rate

So totalled these up and logged into Revenue and inserted the figures and got a tax deduction of a massive €100 then got my P 21 Balancing statement PAYE/USC statement of liability for the tax year.

I did not upload the utility bill statements

So net amount is €40 just the price of half of my BB bill

So wonder if Leaky Leo & Paschal will bring something better in for those WFH to make it worthwhile:(

Seve OB · 20-01-2021 11:53am

Fireball81 wrote: »

So the article is wrong, like most tax stuff you only need receipts if you get audited.

Sounds like peanuts too Shane my employer isbf giving us the €3.20 per day directly...oh well.

someone is telling me that if your employer is not giving you the 3.20 per day, that you can claim the % of your bills plus the 3.20 per day.

i've not looked at it at all yet, but it doesn't sound correct to me.

Nigel Fairservice · 20-01-2021 12:08pm

Seve OB wrote: »

someone is telling me that if your employer is not giving you the 3.20 per day, that you can claim the % of your bills plus the 3.20 per day.

i've not looked at it at all yet, but it doesn't sound correct to me.

You're right, it isn't correct. If your employer isn't giving you the €3.20 you claim a percentage of your allowable bills.

CramCycle · 20-01-2021 12:31pm

Seve OB wrote: »

someone is telling me that if your employer is not giving you the 3.20 per day, that you can claim the % of your bills plus the 3.20 per day.

i've not looked at it at all yet, but it doesn't sound correct to me.

Alas wrong, from their website:

If you are an eWorker, your employer may pay you up to €3.20 per day without deducting:

blah blah blah

Your additional costs might be higher than €3.20. Your employer may pay these higher costs. Any amount more than €3.20 per day paid by your employer will be taxed.

Tax relief claimed by you
If your employer does not make this payment you can claim for allowable costs, these are:

Blah blah blah

So you can claim yourself if you are not paid it, and you can't if you are.

L1011 · 20-01-2021 2:19pm

silverspoon wrote: »

A (possibly stupid) question on this tax relief - can you claim the amount for heating/electricity for all of 2020 even if the direct debit for Nov-Dec is due this month? Or is it only on amounts paid in 2020?

I've apportioned the elements of the bills that crossed the year boundary. I think my broadband is mid-month too but its a fixed price so just 12x works out the same anyway

Still works out as a pittance

For my half of the bills working a whole sixteen days at home (essential worker, so the 'work from home when you can work from home' was even lucky to amount to that!) its basically a rounding error; for my partner with 150 or so days its just about worth it

Seve OB · 20-01-2021 9:47pm

CramCycle wrote: »

Alas wrong, from their website:

So you can claim yourself if you are not paid it, and you can't if you are.

do you have a link to that please

CramCycle · 21-01-2021 12:45am

CramCycle wrote: »

Details on how to work it out are here: https://www.revenue.ie/en/jobs-and-pensions/eworking/index.aspx

@Seve OB 3rd post has the link

sillysocks · 12-02-2021 8:31pm

Does anyone know if this is like other tax credits than can be claimed back 4 years if someone worked from home before the pandemic? Or is it a new relief in 2020 only?

Also, my tv and broadband come as a package, so one price in total for both. No idea how I should break those down? 50/50? Or any one else come up against that?

Claiming Tax Relief for E-Working

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