Remote Working Relief – Rules and Calculations

If you spend part of your week working from your kitchen table or a spare room, your electricity, heating and broadband bills are quietly subsidising your job. Revenue lets you recover some of that through remote working relief, also known as e-working relief. It is not a windfall, and it will not cover the full bill, but for many PAYE employees it is worth claiming every year and it is straightforward once you know the rules.

This guide explains what the relief is, who can claim it, which costs qualify, exactly how the calculation works, and how to submit your claim through Revenue myAccount. We use absolute figures and the current Revenue rules so you can work out your own position before you start.

What is remote working relief in Ireland and how does it work?

Remote working relief is a form of income tax relief on the extra household running costs you take on when you work from home. It is sometimes called e-working relief, and Revenue treats the two terms as the same thing. The relief reduces the amount of income tax you pay; it is a deduction against your taxable income rather than a flat cash grant or a separate tax credit.

Because it works as tax relief on the amount you spend, the value you get back depends on your rate of income tax. The relief covers a fixed share of your electricity, heating and broadband costs for the days you worked from home, and you claim it directly from Revenue. There is no need for an accountant to file it for you, though it helps to have someone check the figures if your situation is more complicated than a single household with one set of bills.

The relief is available to employees who work from home for substantial periods under an arrangement with their employer. According to Revenue, remote working is where you are required to work at home on a full-time or part-time basis. That covers fully remote staff and hybrid workers alike.

Who qualifies for remote working relief in Ireland?

To claim, you need to be a PAYE employee who carries out work from your home residence on a regular basis, with the agreement of your employer. Revenue describes an e-worker as someone who works at home for substantial periods, whether on a full or part-time basis, logging on remotely, sending and receiving work electronically, and developing or writing work at home.

Three common situations show how this plays out for employees in Ireland:

• Full-time remote employees who work from their home residence every working day can claim for the full set of days they worked from home across the year.
• Hybrid workers who split the week between home and the office claim only for the home-working days, not the office days.
• Occasional home workers who simply bring work home outside of normal working hours, in the evening or at weekends, generally do not qualify. Bringing the laptop home to finish a report is not the same as a formal remote work arrangement.

One point that catches people out: a remote worker who chooses to work from a co-working space rather than their own home is working away from the home residence, so those days do not count towards this particular relief. The claim is built around days working at your own home.

What expenses can you claim for remote working relief?

Revenue allows you to attribute 30% of three specific costs to remote working. Those costs are:

• Electricity
• Heating
• Broadband

You cannot claim 30% of the full annual bill. The 30% is applied only to the portion of the bill that relates to your home-working days, which we explain in the calculation section below. The figures you use should come from your actual utility bills, so keep them.

Just as important is knowing what is not covered. The relief does not extend to rent or mortgage payments, home insurance, general home repairs, or the cost of furnishing a home office. Capital items such as laptops, computers, office equipment and office furniture that you buy yourself are not allowable costs under this relief, as Revenue confirms. If your employer provides you with equipment to do your job at home, that is a separate matter and is not normally taxed as a benefit.

Two billing nuances are worth flagging. If your broadband is bundled with television or phone and there is no separate broadband cost shown, Revenue accepts a reasonable apportionment of the bundle as your broadband cost, with the same 30% attribution applied. And if the bills are in a housemate's or partner's name, or shared across a household, you can only claim your own share of the cost, so be ready to show how you apportioned it.

How much remote working relief can you claim, and what rate of tax relief applies?

The amount of your costs you can claim is built from two things: the total costs of working from home across electricity, heating and broadband, and the number of days you worked from home as a proportion of the year. Revenue gives relief on a calculated allowable amount, then applies your income tax rate to that amount to work out the actual tax saving.

This is where the difference between the allowable cost and the tax saving matters. The allowable amount is the slice of your bills attributed to remote working. The relief you receive is that allowable amount multiplied by your highest rate of income tax. The relief is given at your highest rate, so a higher-rate taxpayer recovers more on the same bills than a standard-rate taxpayer.

Remote working relief reduces income tax only. It does not reduce your PRSI or USC, and it is not a flat per-day tax credit. That is a common source of confusion, so it is worth being clear: this is tax relief on a calculated cost, applied at your marginal rate of income tax.

How do you calculate remote working relief in Ireland?

Revenue uses a single formula. The allowable amount is ((A × B) ÷ C – D) × 30%, where A is your total allowable bills for electricity, heating and broadband, B is the number of days you worked from home, C is the number of days in the year, and D is any remote working allowance your employer already reimbursed. You then apply your income tax rate to the result to find the tax saving.

Broken into steps, the method is:

• Step 1: Add up your qualifying total costs for the year across electricity, heating and broadband.
• Step 2: Multiply that total by the number of days worked from home, then divide by the number of days in the year (365, or 366 in a leap year).
• Step 3: Subtract any allowance your employer paid you, then take 30% of what remains.
• Step 4: Multiply that allowable amount by your highest rate of income tax to estimate your tax savings.

Here is a worked example that mirrors Revenue's own. Say you worked from home for 50 days in the year, your combined electricity, heating and broadband bills came to €1,890, and your employer paid no allowance. You multiply the total costs by the number of days and divide: €1,890 × 50 ÷ 365 = €258.90. Take 30% of that and the allowable cost is €77.67. If you pay tax at the higher rate of 40%, your tax relief is €31.07 for the year. A standard-rate taxpayer on the same figures would get €15.53. These figures match the example published by Revenue.

A few mistakes drag claims down or invite questions later:

• Claiming the full household bills without apportioning by days, instead of multiplying total costs by the number of days worked and dividing by the days in the year.
• Counting days you did not actually work from home, such as annual leave, public holidays or office days.
• Forgetting to subtract an employer allowance, which leads to double-claiming on the same expense.

What records should you keep to support your calculation?

You do not upload your bills when you claim, but Revenue may ask to see them, so keep the evidence. Hold on to your electricity, heating and broadband bills or receipts, whether paper or digital, and keep a record of the days you worked from home, such as a calendar, timesheets or a note confirmed by your employer. If you apportioned shared bills, keep a short note of how you worked out your share. Retaining these records for several years protects you if your figures are ever reviewed.

How do you claim remote working relief from Revenue?

You claim remote working relief yourself through Revenue myAccount, the same system PAYE employees use to manage their tax. You can claim during the year or, more commonly, after the end of the tax year when you know your full home-working day count and your total bills. The relief is requested as part of your income tax return for the year.

The high-level steps inside myAccount are:

• Sign in to Revenue myAccount and select the relevant tax year.
• Open your Income Tax Return for that year and go to the section covering tax credits and reliefs, where you select remote working relief.
• Insert the amount of expense for electricity, heating and broadband, and the number of days you worked from home.
• Submit the return and keep the confirmation for your records.

Once processed, any refund due is usually paid to the bank account Revenue holds for you, or your tax position for the year is adjusted. Claiming through the annual return is the cleanest route because it settles the relief alongside any other PAYE reliefs you are entitled to claim, such as medical expense relief.

You are not limited to the current year. You can claim for up to four years back from the end of the relevant tax year, so if you worked from home in earlier years and never claimed, you can still file for those years in myAccount. Each year is claimed separately, using that year's bills and home-working day count.

Can you still claim if your employer pays you a remote working allowance?

Your employer can pay you a tax-free allowance of up to €3.20 per day to cover the costs of working from home, and many employers choose to do this through payroll. If your employer does not pay this allowance, or pays you less than your allowable costs, you can claim remote working relief on the shortfall.

The two cannot stack on the same euro of cost. Where your employer has paid an allowance, that amount is the D in the formula and is subtracted before the 30% is applied, which stops you getting relief twice on the same expense. Check your payslips to see whether a remote working allowance has been paid before you claim, and keep that documentation with your records.

What are the most common pitfalls when claiming remote working relief?

Most problems come down to either over-claiming or poor record-keeping. The recurring ones are:

• Claiming non-qualifying items such as rent, mortgage interest or office furniture under this relief.
• Using the whole household's bills without splitting them where more than one person contributes.
• Inflating the number of days worked at home by including weekends, leave or office days.
• Being unable to produce bills or a day count if Revenue queries the figures.
• Treating the relief as a flat tax credit rather than tax relief on a calculated amount, which leads to the wrong expectation about how much you will get back.

None of these are hard to avoid. A tidy folder of utility bills and an honest day count are enough to make the claim defensible and quick to file.

Frequently asked questions about remote working relief in Ireland

Can I claim remote working relief if I only work from home part of the week?

Yes. The claim is based on your actual home-working days, so a hybrid worker simply counts the days they worked from home and uses that number in the calculation. Office days and days off are left out.

Can I claim for broadband if it is bundled with TV or phone?

Yes, but you need to identify the broadband portion of the bundle. Where the bill does not break it out, Revenue accepts a reasonable apportionment of the bundle cost as your broadband cost, with the same 30% attribution applied.

Can I claim if my partner or housemate pays the bills?

You can only claim your own share of the cost. If household bills are split, work out the amount of your costs you actually contribute, claim on that figure, and keep a note of how you apportioned it in case Revenue asks.

Do I need receipts to claim remote working relief?

You do not submit them with the claim, but you must keep your bills and a record of your home-working days. Revenue may ask you to support the amounts claimed, and you need to be able to justify your figures if queried.

Can I claim remote working relief for previous years?

Generally yes. You can claim for up to four years from the end of the relevant tax year, so several earlier years may still be open. Check each year separately in myAccount and use that year's bills and day count.

Ready to claim your remote working relief in Ireland?

Remote working relief rarely runs to large sums on its own, but it adds up year after year, and it often sits alongside other PAYE reliefs people forget to claim. Before you file, gather your annual electricity, heating and broadband totals, count your home-working days, check your payslips for any employer allowance, and save the supporting documents. From there the myAccount claim takes a few minutes.

If your situation is less tidy, perhaps you changed jobs mid-year, share bills across a household, or want to claim several backdated years at once, it pays to have the figures checked. Kinore is a senior-led firm with dedicated client managers who handle PAYE and self-assessment tax across Ireland every day, so you are not left guessing whether you have claimed everything you are entitled to. Talk to our team and we will review your eligibility, sense-check the calculation, and make sure nothing is left on the table.

The information provided in this article is for general guidance and informational purposes only. It does not constitute professional accounting, tax, or financial advice, and should not be relied upon as a substitute for advice tailored to your specific circumstances. While we take care to ensure the content is accurate and up to date at the time of publication, legislation, tax rates, thresholds, and compliance requirements in Ireland can change.