Remote and hybrid working has become a permanent feature of Irish employment since the pandemic, with an estimated 30–35% of workers now spending at least part of their week working from home. If you are one of them, the good news is that Revenue allows you to claim tax relief on certain costs associated with working from home. The relief is not huge in absolute terms, but it is straightforward to claim and puts real money back in your pocket. In 2026, the rules remain broadly the same as in recent years, but it is worth understanding exactly what you can claim, what the limits are, and how to submit your claim.
What Can You Claim?
Revenue allows remote workers to claim tax relief on the following expenses incurred while working from home:
- Electricity
- Heating (gas, oil, solid fuel)
- Broadband
The relief is calculated at 30% of the cost of electricity, heating, and broadband for the days you worked from home. This 30% rate represents Revenue's accepted estimate of the proportion of these utilities used for work purposes during a working day.
Note that you can only claim for days you actually worked from home. If you work from home three days a week, you can claim for those three days, not the full five. Weekends, holidays, and days spent in the office do not count.
How to Calculate Your Claim
The calculation works as follows:
- Add up your total annual costs for electricity, heating, and broadband
- Divide by 365 to get a daily cost
- Multiply by the number of days you worked from home
- Take 30% of that figure
- Apply tax relief at your marginal rate (20% or 40%)
For example, if your annual electricity and heating costs are €2,500 and broadband is €600, your total is €3,100. The daily cost is €8.49. If you worked from home 150 days, the eligible amount is €1,274. At 30%, the claimable expense is €382. If you are a higher-rate taxpayer (40%), the actual tax saving is €153. If you are a standard-rate taxpayer (20%), it is €76.
These numbers might seem modest, but they accumulate over the years, and many workers do not realise they can claim at all. Check how your remote working setup affects your overall tax position using our salary calculator.
The e-Working Allowance from Your Employer
As an alternative to claiming the Revenue relief directly, your employer can pay you an e-working allowance of up to €3.20 per day that you work from home, tax-free. This is often simpler from an administrative perspective. If your employer pays the €3.20 daily allowance, you do not need to make a separate claim to Revenue for those days.
However, if your employer does not pay the e-working allowance, or pays less than €3.20 per day, you can claim the difference directly from Revenue. You cannot claim both the full Revenue relief and the full employer allowance for the same days – but you can top up if the employer pays less than €3.20.
Some employers have introduced more generous remote working allowances. If your employer pays more than €3.20 per day, the excess is treated as taxable income (BIK). Check your payslip or ask your HR department to confirm what arrangement is in place.
How to Submit Your Claim
Claims are made through Revenue's myAccount service. Here is the process:
- Log in to myAccount on Revenue.ie
- Navigate to Review your tax for the relevant tax year
- Select Remote Working Relief under the Employment section
- Enter the number of days you worked from home
- Enter your total utility costs (electricity, heating, broadband)
- Submit the claim
You can claim for the current year or for previous years going back up to four years. If you have not claimed remote working relief for 2022, 2023, 2024, or 2025, you can still do so now. Many workers are leaving money on the table simply because they have not submitted their claims.
What You Cannot Claim
The remote working relief does not cover:
- Furniture or equipment: You cannot claim for a desk, chair, monitor, or any other equipment unless your employer reimburses you (which they can do tax-free up to certain limits for necessary equipment)
- Rent or mortgage: Working from home does not entitle you to claim any portion of your rent or mortgage payments (this is different from the self-employed rules)
- Food and drink: Tea, coffee, and snacks at home are not claimable
The self-employed, by contrast, can claim home office expenses on a proportional basis including rent and other costs. If you have both employment income and self-employment income, the rules for each need to be applied separately. Our self-employed tax calculator handles the self-employment side, while the salary calculator covers PAYE income.
Is It Worth Claiming?
Yes. Even though the individual savings may be €75–€200 per year, it takes less than ten minutes to submit the claim through myAccount. Over four years, that is potentially €300–€800 in tax savings for minimal effort. And if you have not claimed for previous years, you could be owed a lump-sum refund.
The bottom line is that any legitimate tax relief you are entitled to should be claimed. It is your money, and Revenue expects you to claim it. Use our tax credits calculator to see what other reliefs you might be missing, and our reverse tax calculator to work backwards from your net pay to understand exactly how your deductions break down.