With effect from 1 January 2022, a targeted exemption will be introduced for the reimbursement of expenses incurred by employees working from home. A maximum of €2 per day worked from home may be reimbursed tax-free.
Home working expenses
Nibud has investigated the additional costs incurred by employees as a result of working from home. Based on this research, Nibud concludes that these costs amount to an average of €2 per day worked from home.
This study takes into account the costs relating to additional water and electricity consumption, heating, coffee, tea and toilet paper.
Expenses relating to setting up a home office can already be reimbursed tax-free at present. To qualify, the ‘necessity criterion’ must be met, or the conditions for the reimbursement or provision of health and safety facilities must be satisfied.
Directed exemption
The allowance of €2 per day worked from home may be paid tax-free if the employee is working from home as part of their employment. This is known as a ‘targeted exemption’. This means that the allowance is not deducted from the discretionary allowance under the work-related expenses scheme.
Even if an employee does not work from home for the whole day, the €2 allowance may be paid tax-free. However, it is not permitted to pay an employee both the tax-free allowance for working from home and a tax-free allowance for travel expenses incurred in commuting to and from work on the same day.
An employee who is provided with a public transport chip card, a public transport season ticket, a car or a bicycle by their employer may only receive the €2 per day working from home allowance tax-free if, on the working from home day in question, they do not use the public transport chip card, public transport season ticket, car or bicycle to travel to the workplace on that day.
Fixed fee
The home-working allowance may also be paid as a fixed allowance. If the employee works from home on at least 128 days in the calendar year, the fixed home-working allowance may be paid tax-free as if the employee had worked from home for 214 days during the year.
Exactly the same rules apply to a fixed travel allowance.
The allowance does not need to be adjusted if, on the odd occasion, the employee does not work from home (for example, due to holiday, illness, a training course or a client visit).
Employees who regularly work partly from home and/or incur travel expenses for their commute must recalculate the number of days on a pro rata basis.
Example (taken from the parliamentary explanatory notes)
An employee with a four-day working week agrees with their employer that they will work two days from home and two days in the office. The distance between home and work is 20 kilometres (one way).
Elaboration
The fixed allowance for working from home is calculated on the basis of: (2/5) * 214 = 86 days. The tax-free allowance on an annual basis is: 86 * €2 = € 172 (per month: € 14,33).
The fixed travel allowance is also subject to a limit of 86 days. The tax-free allowance on an annual basis is calculated as follows: 86 * 2 * 20 * €0.19 = € 653,60 (per month: € 54,47).
No obligation
We have set out above the rules that apply to a tax-exempt allowance. Apart from any provisions laid down, for example, in a collective labour agreement, the employer is under no obligation to pay this allowance.
If the employer pays the employee a higher allowance, the amount in excess of €2 per day is subject to payroll tax. However, the employer may allocate this portion to the discretionary allowance under the work-related expenses scheme.