Ireland Remote Work Relief 2025 — €3.20/Day Allowance & 30% Utility Deduction

Two separate mechanisms, not one

Irish "remote working relief" is often described as a flat daily figure, but it is actually two different things, and only one of them is claimed by the employee from Revenue.

1. The employer's tax-free daily allowance. An employer may pay a remote-working employee up to €3.20 for each day worked from home, free of Income Tax, PRSI and USC. This is a payment the employer chooses to make, not an entitlement the employee can force, and it is not a claim you make to Revenue at all.

2. The employee's own deduction, claimed through myAccount. Whether or not your employer pays anything, you can claim a deduction of 30% of the apportioned cost of electricity, heating and broadband for the days you actually worked from home during the year. This is claimed by you directly, and it is what most people mean when they refer to "remote working tax relief."

How the 30% deduction is actually calculated

Take your total annual electricity, heating and broadband bills, apportion them by the number of days worked from home over the total days in the year, then apply 30% to that apportioned figure. Any amount your employer already paid you tax-free (mechanism 1, above) is then deducted from what you can claim, so the two mechanisms do not stack on the same expense.

Because this is a deduction from taxable income rather than a straight-line credit, its cash value depends on your marginal tax rate: a standard-rate (20%) taxpayer gets back 20% of the deduction, a higher-rate (40%) taxpayer gets back 40% — a bigger deduction is worth more to a higher earner, unlike a flat-rate credit that would be worth the same to everyone.

Worked example

An employee works from home 150 days in the tax year, out of 250 total working days, and has annual electricity, heating and broadband bills totalling €2,400. Their employer pays no remote-working allowance at all.

• Apportioned by remote-working days: €2,400 × (150 ÷ 250) = €1,440
• Deductible amount: €1,440 × 30% = €432
• Relief, if a 40% marginal-rate taxpayer: €432 × 40% = €172.80
• Relief, if a 20% standard-rate taxpayer: €432 × 20% = €86.40

If the same employer had instead paid the full €3.20-a-day tax-free allowance for all 150 work-from-home days (150 × €3.20 = €480, itself already tax-free), the employee's separate €432 deduction claim would still stand — the €480 employer payment and the €432 personal deduction come from different mechanisms, so paying the allowance does not by itself cancel the deduction, though any allowance that specifically reimburses the same utility costs is netted off first.

How to claim

Claim through Revenue myAccount, entering your qualifying costs under the remote working relief section. You can claim in real time during the year — which increases your tax credits in subsequent payroll payments — or after the year ends. Claims can also be backdated up to four years, so an employee who worked from home in earlier years without claiming has not lost the relief for those years.

FAQ

Q: Can I claim the 30% deduction and also receive the €3.20/day allowance from my employer? A: Yes, they are not mutually exclusive — but any part of the employer's payment that reimburses the same specific costs you are also claiming relief on is deducted from your claim, so you cannot get double relief on the identical euro of expense.

Q: Does the 30% relief apply to my broadband bill even if the household also uses it for non-work purposes? A: Yes — the 30% figure and the day-based apportionment already build in an allowance for shared, non-work use; you do not separately need to strip out personal use of the same broadband line.

Q: I'm self-employed and work from home. Does the same 30% rule apply to me? A: This specific relief (Section 088D-type e-working relief, myAccount-claimed) is for PAYE employees. A self-employed person instead deducts a proportion of home running costs as an ordinary business expense on their Form 11, under different rules.

Sources

Figures verified against Revenue guidance as of 30 July 2026:

• Revenue — "eWorking and home workers" (€3.20/day employer allowance, tax/PRSI/USC-free)
• Revenue — "What costs can you claim for?" and "How to calculate allowable remote working costs" (30% of electricity, heat and broadband, apportioned by remote-working days, less any employer reimbursement)
• Revenue Tax and Duty Manual Part 05-02-13, "Remote Working Relief" (deduction-from-income mechanism, relief at the claimant's marginal rate, real-time and backdated claims via myAccount)