Working from home claiming tax back

Xcellor · 24-09-2020 8:45am #1

My company doesn't pay any allowance towards working from home so looking at the information I can claim proportions back.

I would have electricity/broadband/heating oil

With the change in the weather the heating has been put on, if I'm working a 8 hour day from home which would normally be in the office. On the revenue website it speaks about utility bills being 10% but this would never cover the cost of heating.

Can I claim a higher % on this basis?

relax carry on · 24-09-2020 9:21am

Xcellor wrote: »

My company doesn't pay any allowance towards working from home so looking at the information I can claim proportions back.

I would have electricity/broadband/heating oil

With the change in the weather the heating has been put on, if I'm working a 8 hour day from home which would normally be in the office. On the revenue website it speaks about utility bills being 10% but this would never cover the cost of heating.

Can I claim a higher % on this basis?

You can make a case and see what the outcome would be. If you were in the office were you still paying the same amount for your broadband? Has your electricity bill gone up by more than 10% compared to when you weren't working from home? Same for heating. These costs existed before working form home but how much of the increase is directly related to working from home.

Peregrinus · 24-09-2020 9:34am

Xcellor wrote: »

My company doesn't pay any allowance towards working from home so looking at the information I can claim proportions back.

I would have electricity/broadband/heating oil

With the change in the weather the heating has been put on, if I'm working a 8 hour day from home which would normally be in the office. On the revenue website it speaks about utility bills being 10% but this would never cover the cost of heating.

Can I claim a higher % on this basis?

You're not entitled to claim the whole cost of heating the entire house on the days you work from home. You can only claim expenses which are wholly, necessarily and exclusively incurred in the performance of the duties of your employment, and this rule is applied pretty strictly. The Revenue rule-of-thumb is that when e-working you only use 10% of your house wholly, necessarily and exclusively for your work, so only 10% of the heating bill is deductible. It's irrelevant that you wouldn't otherwise be heating the rest of the house; the point is that you're not using the rest of the house for work.

You could argue for more than 10% of the heating bill for the days you work at home by arguing that you need to use more than 10% of the space for work purposes - e.g. if you live in a very small flat, or if your work is not just sitting at a desk or table but involves, e.g, a substantial workshop area set up for physical tasks (e.g. if you're a tradesman or a craftsman rather than a knowledge worker).

Xcellor · 24-09-2020 10:51am

Peregrinus wrote: »

You're not entitled to claim the whole cost of heating the entire house on the days you work from home. You can only claim expenses which are wholly, necessarily and exclusively incurred in the performance of the duties of your employment, and this rule is applied pretty strictly. The Revenue rule-of-thumb is that when e-working you only use 10% of your house wholly, necessarily and exclusively for your work, so only 10% of the heating bill is deductible. It's irrelevant that you wouldn't otherwise be heating the rest of the house; the point is that you're not using the rest of the house for work.

You could argue for more than 10% of the heating bill for the days you work at home by arguing that you need to use more than 10% of the space for work purposes - e.g. if you live in a very small flat, or if your work is not just sitting at a desk or table but involves, e.g, a substantial workshop area set up for physical tasks (e.g. if you're a tradesman or a craftsman rather than a knowledge worker).

I don't want to claim 100% but 10% on the other hand is not enough

Also does a home office just mean that its the room for the office? Toilet + kitchen etc are required too and are required to be in place in a work place setting.

I'd guess this topic will become discussed more as people realise their heating is clicking on more often. Heating a house during the day is not something I'd ever of done before (exception being on holiday) so it is an additional expense and only being incurred due to working at home.

wiggle16 · 24-09-2020 2:37pm

Xcellor wrote: »

I don't want to claim 100% but 10% on the other hand is not enough

Also does a home office just mean that its the room for the office? Toilet + kitchen etc are required too and are required to be in place in a work place setting.

I'd guess this topic will become discussed more as people realise their heating is clicking on more often. Heating a house during the day is not something I'd ever of done before (exception being on holiday) so it is an additional expense and only being incurred due to working at home.

It doesnt really matter if it's discussed more frequently, it's very strict and I can't see it changing. You can only claim the portion of the expenses that relate directly to your work.

If the argument is that heating the entire house costs X amount and you wouldnt be incurring the cost if you were in your work place, then one can as easily argue that you turn off the radiators elsewhere in the house while youre working in the one room, or put a heater in the room and leave the central heating off. You're not working in your bathroom and if you're not working in your kitchen then you don't *need* to heat it - if you choose to do so for your own comfort that's a choice you make. It's not necessary for you to do in order to be able to work at home.

Im not being smart but that's the answer I would give and it's the answer you'd get from Revenue. It can't be the case that the expenses involved in running your home can be treated as a tax deduction in that way. You can only claim the costs incurred where they relate wholly and necessarily to carrying out your duties in employment.

Edited to clarify: if the room you are heating is increasing your bill by more than 10% then there is a solid case for asking Revenue if you can claim the excess but it's not going to fly for heating the house. Whats expected is that you would be keeping your own costs down to the minimum anyway and so the tax deductible part is the part you can't avoid.
And sorry if that come across like I'm having a go, I'm not, it's just that's the answer you'd get from Revenue.

Xcellor · 25-09-2020 8:40am

wiggle16 wrote: »

It doesnt really matter if it's discussed more frequently, it's very strict and I can't see it changing. You can only claim the portion of the expenses that relate directly to your work.

If the argument is that heating the entire house costs X amount and you wouldnt be incurring the cost if you were in your work place, then one can as easily argue that you turn off the radiators elsewhere in the house while youre working in the one room, or put a heater in the room and leave the central heating off. You're not working in your bathroom and if you're not working in your kitchen then you don't *need* to heat it - if you choose to do so for your own comfort that's a choice you make. It's not necessary for you to do in order to be able to work at home.

Im not being smart but that's the answer I would give and it's the answer you'd get from Revenue. It can't be the case that the expenses involved in running your home can be treated as a tax deduction in that way. You can only claim the costs incurred where they relate wholly and necessarily to carrying out your duties in employment.

Edited to clarify: if the room you are heating is increasing your bill by more than 10% then there is a solid case for asking Revenue if you can claim the excess but it's not going to fly for heating the house. Whats expected is that you would be keeping your own costs down to the minimum anyway and so the tax deductible part is the part you can't avoid.
And sorry if that come across like I'm having a go, I'm not, it's just that's the answer you'd get from Revenue.

That's fair enough, thems are the rules!

Dublinandy3 · 25-09-2020 8:52am

Apolgoies if you know this already but to clarify you wouldn't get 10% of your bills back. You get the tax back on 10%. So if you're at a rate of 20% and your total bills are 1k, you'd get 20% of 100 back, so 20 Euro. It's not a straight 10%.

Apologies if you knew this already, I didn't so thought I'd share.

Xcellor · 25-09-2020 10:24am

Dublinandy3 wrote: »

Apolgoies if you know this already but to clarify you wouldn't get 10% of your bills back. You get the tax back on 10%. So if you're at a rate of 20% and your total bills are 1k, you'd get 20% of 100 back, so 20 Euro. It's not a straight 10%.

Apologies if you knew this already, I didn't so thought I'd share.

It's sort of set up to be more trouble than it's worth!!!

Thanks for all the feedback.

Calahonda52 · 25-09-2020 10:58am

Xcellor wrote: »

It's sort of set up to be more trouble than it's worth!!!

Thanks for all the feedback.

Is your employer aware of the 3.20/day workers allowance which is tax free to you?

un5byh7sqpd2x0 · 25-09-2020 11:00am

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Is your employer aware of the 3.20/day workers allowance which is tax free to you?

And an extra cost to them...

Calahonda52 · 25-09-2020 11:29am

Coraline Witty Ferryboat wrote: »

And an extra cost to them...

Yes, tax deductible but if the office is dark, unheated, no water usage etc....

The real scandal is the employers who are f**king with the P&L to keep profits below the revenue 25% loss test, taking the subsidy and f88king their employees by not paying the 3.20.

IMO any such employer is not worth working for.

Working from home claiming tax back

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