Part-time eWorker: Commuting tax relief

robdonn

Hi all, I hope somebody might be able to offer some insight into this.

I currently live in the Midlands and work full-time for a company in Dublin, this involves a round-trip commute of about 270km per day by car. Luckily I work from home 2 days a week which takes a bit of the sting out.

I understand that there is no tax relief available on commuting costs but while browsing around the internet I did come across an IRS loophole that allows tax relief when travelling from a qualifying home office to another place of work.

One way to avoid the harsh IRS commuting rule is to have a qualifying home office. In this event, you can deduct the cost of any trips you make from your home office to another business location. The commuting rule doesn’t apply if you work at home because you never commute to work. With a qualifying home office, you’re already at your work.

Source

This got me wondering, does Revenue have any similar kind of rule?

If so:

• What requirements would a home office need to qualify?
• Since I only work from my home office 2 out of 5 days in the week, would I need to increase it to 3 days to make it my primary work location?

Thanks in advance to anyone with info!

Daxve

https://www.revenue.ie/en/employing-people/employee-expenses/travel-and-subsistence/normal-place-of-work.aspx

Your normal place of work is where your employer provides the facilities for you to do your work normally their offices but it can be another location if they have multiple offices. You can’t claim travel expenses from your home to your normal place of work.

Your home is not normally your place of work unless there is an objective requirement for it to be, that is

You must work from home as you cannot carry out your duties elsewhere

There is no objective requirement if you merely choose to carry out your work from home but have facilities at your employers base or the duties you carry out at home are minor or incidental ( doing a bit of admin work).

As you choose to work from home to cut down on your commute but have a place to work at your employers offices then you can’t claim travel expenses.

robdonn

Thanks Daxve for the info, good to know!