Cormac Devlin
Question:114. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Finance the number of persons who have availed of remote working relief to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46282/22]
View answerThursday, 22 September 2022
Questions (114)
Written answers
As the Deputy will be aware, in the Finance Act 2021, I enhanced and formalised the tax arrangements for working from home in line with Government policy to facilitate and support remote working. Accordingly, for the tax year 2022, an income tax deduction amounting to 30% of the cost of vouched expenses for electricity, heat and broadband in respect of those days spent working from home can be claimed by taxpayers. The amount of the relief will depend on the particular circumstances of the remote worker in terms of the level of costs incurred and their marginal tax rate.
As of 19 September 2022, the volume of Remote Working Relief claims and their monetary value are as follows:
- For 2022 (year to date), 2,643 claims to the value of €1.1 million,
- For 2021, 69,280 claims to the value of €12.4 million,
- For 2020, 118,000 claims to the value of €19 million.
It should be noted, however, that these are unlikely to be the final figures for such claims, as taxpayers have up to four years to file their Income Tax Returns for a year and claim any additional expenses due.
Remote Working Relief claims can be made via Revenue’s MyAccount, for years up to and including 2022. If making a claim for 2022 during 2022, the taxpayer is required to upload a readable image of his or her receipt(s) to Revenue’s Receipts Tracker during the application as the amount claimed increases the taxpayer’s current year tax credits for which he or she will see a benefit in his or her next payroll payment.
Separately to the foregoing, where e-workers incur certain extra expenditure in the performance of their duties of employment remotely or from home, such as additional heating and electricity costs, there is a Revenue administrative practice in place that allows an employer to make payments up to €3.20 per day to such employees, subject to certain conditions, without deducting PAYE, PRSI, or USC.
However, I wish to advise the Deputy that the €3.20 daily allowance is a discretionary payment by an employer to his or her employees. No information is available about the numbers in receipt of such payments because this data is not captured in the information that employers report to Revenue.