83% of remote workers missing out on 'free money' from tax relief on bills

Remote working relief allows people to claim for tax relief of 10% of their electricity and heating bills, and 30% of broadband costs, divided over the number of days worked remotely over the course of the year. File Picture

More than eight in 10 (83%) people working remotely could be missing out on up to €100 per year by not claiming work from home tax relief.

As part of a new survey, remote workers around the country were asked whether they had availed of working from home relief. Just 17% said they had done so.

42% said they hadn’t claimed, and further 33% said they hadn’t claimed because they didn’t know how to. Interestingly, 8% of respondents said they had no intention of applying for the relief.

Remote working relief allows people to claim for tax relief of 10% of their electricity and heating bills, and 30% of broadband costs, divided over the number of days worked remotely over the course of the year.

The survey also asked people living in a shared house or apartment how they thought this relief would be apportioned to their place of residence. 29% thought anyone working is eligible for the full relief on the total cost of utilities, regardless of their accommodation type. 

27% believed the relief was only available to the person named on each of the bills, while over one-fifth (21%) thought the relief was not available to people living in a shared house or flat at all.

Only 23% correctly assumed that relief was given on their share of the bills - i.e. three people sharing a house or apartment would take one-third of the relief amount each.

"We have been advising any clients working from home to collate their bills and claim this relief," said Barry Cahill of Taxback.com, which carried out the research.

Anyone not doing so is missing out on 'free money', and while the amounts may be small, it’s hard to understand why anyone would not want this money in their pocket instead of leaving it with the taxman.

Mr Cahill said that, with thousands of people working from home and sharing their accommodation with others, eligibility for relief for people in this scenario was “likely to be commonplace”.

He urged remote workers to avail of the tax relief on their utility and broadband bills.

"Some simply don’t know about it, others might not fully understand how it works, and more again may believe it’s too much hassle to claim," he said.

"Simply put – tax refunds like this are money for jam as the saying goes, and what we have found is that claiming tax back is habitual – so those who don’t claim now are likely to miss out on other reliefs too."