Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy is aware, the Government has introduced a series of supports to help businesses deal with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. These measures are specifically targeted at supporting businesses negatively affected by the pandemic in retaining their employees on payroll and include the employment wage subsidy scheme and its predecessor, the temporary scheme.

With regard to employees working from home, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is driving implementation of remote work with the national remote work strategy, Making Remote Work, which was published in January. This strategy includes the commitment that officials in my Department will consider the economic, financial and organisational implications arising from the experience of remote working during the pandemic and that the tax strategy group will review the current tax arrangements for remote working in respect of employees and employers.

As part of the standard tax regime, businesses may claim a tax deduction for expenses wholly and exclusively laid out or expended for the purposes of the trade or profession. This may include reasonable reimbursement of expenses incurred by their employees in the course of working from home, including additional heating and electricity costs. The Revenue Commissioners have confirmed that PAYE workers using their primary residence as a workplace during Covid-19 restrictions qualify as eworkers for the purposes of a revenue statement practice allowing employers to pay up to €3.20 per day to employees in respect of working from home expenses without deducting income tax, universal charge or PRSI.

With regard to the provision of additional supports, I am conscious of the need to consider wider equity concerns for both employers and employees. We propose to consider those through the tax strategy group process that will yield the publication of papers later in the year.

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