Reviewed by: MyTaxRebate Team on 11 Mar 2026 | Authority: s.865 TCA 1997 | TDM Part 05-02-13
Quick Answer
The main remote working tax deduction for PAYE workers in Ireland is the e-worker relief. This allows you to claim tax relief on 30% of your qualifying home utility costs (electricity, heating, and broadband), based on the number of days you work from home under a formal employer arrangement.
If you're a hybrid worker (e.g. 3 days at home, 2 in the office) with €2,400 in annual utility bills, this translates to roughly €86 in tax credit per year. If you're fully remote, it’s about €144 per year. Crucially, under s.865 TCA 1997, you can claim for the last four open tax years (2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025) simultaneously. MyTaxRebate combines this with any other applicable reliefs for a comprehensive four-year claim.
What This Page Covers
Key Facts at a Glance
Step-by-Step: How Your Remote Working Deduction is Calculated
Calculating your e-worker relief might seem tricky at first, but it follows a strict four-step process laid out by Revenue. First, you need to add up your actual annual spend on qualifying utilities. These are strictly limited to your electricity, heating (gas, oil, or solid fuel), and broadband bills. Do not include water, rates, rent, mortgage, or other household expenses.
Step two: Take that total annual figure and multiply it by 30%. Revenue has determined that this flat 30% represents the portion of home utility costs attributable to your home-working setup, regardless of your home's size or how many people live there.
Step three: Apply your work-from-home proportion. This is your number of WFH days per week divided by your total working days per week. For instance, if you work 5 days a week entirely from home, your proportion is 1.0 (or 100%). If you work from home 3 days out of 5, your proportion is 0.6 (or 60%). Multiply the figure from step two by this proportion.
Step four: The result is your deductible e-worker expense. Since this is a tax deduction, you multiply it by the standard income tax rate of 20% to find the actual tax credit that reduces your PAYE bill. You can submit claims for this credit for 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 all at once.
How the Employer Allowance Fits In
A common point of confusion is how the e-worker deduction interacts with the employer's optional €3.20 tax-free daily allowance. It's important to know that these are two different things. The employer allowance is a discretionary payroll payment. The e-worker relief is a tax deduction claimed from Revenue based on your actual utility bills. You can receive the allowance and still make a valid Revenue claim, provided your claim only covers costs not already reimbursed.
MyTaxRebate handles this as a coordination exercise. We look at whether your employer paid nothing, paid the flat daily rate, or directly covered specific bills. We then map this against your utility evidence and your WFH pattern for each year. This careful approach prevents two common errors: assuming the allowance completely stops you from claiming, or mistakenly trying to claim for costs already covered.
Why a Full PAYE Review Usually Yields More
If you qualify for remote working deductions, there's a strong chance you have other unclaimed PAYE reliefs in those same open years. The most frequent overlaps we see are with flat-rate expenses for specific professions, as well as medical and dental expenses, rent credit, and overpayments from job changes.
That's why MyTaxRebate doesn't just look at your WFH claim in isolation. A remote working refund on its own might be modest - perhaps a couple of hundred euro over four years. But when you add in unclaimed flat-rate expenses or medical relief, the total four-year refund becomes much more significant. A comprehensive review ensures you aren't leaving money on the table just because you only focused on your remote working setup.
Tax Scenarios
Fully remote worker, 2022 - 2025
Annual electricity: €1,600. Gas: €800. Broadband: €400. Total qualifying utilities: €2,800. Step 1: €2,800. Step 2: €2,800 × 30% = €840. Step 3 (WFH ratio): 5/5 × €840 = €840. Step 4 (Tax Credit): €840 × 20% = €168 for the year. Over four open years with similar costs, the total e-worker relief is approximately €672.
Hybrid worker, 3 days WFH
Annual electricity: €1,500. Heating: €700. Broadband: €400. Total qualifying utilities: €2,600. Step 1: €2,600. Step 2: €2,600 × 30% = €780. Step 3 (WFH ratio): 3/5 × €780 = €468. Step 4 (Tax Credit): €468 × 20% = €93.60 for the year. Over four open years, the total relief is approximately €374.
Combined with other PAYE reliefs
A teacher working fully remote from 2022 to 2025 with €2,400 in utilities claims e-worker relief (€144/year) alongside the flat-rate teacher deduction (€518/year at 20% = €103.60/year). Combined relief is €247.60 per year, totalling €990 over four years. Adding in any qualifying medical expenses paid during this period typically brings the total refund secured through MyTaxRebate to €1,200 or more.
Four-year combined claim with flat-rate and medical
A PAYE worker claims e-worker relief, flat-rate expenses for their occupation, and medical expenses in a single four-year engagement with MyTaxRebate. WFH relief: €346 (hybrid, €2,400 utilities). Flat-rate: €414. Medical: €200. Total four-year refund: approximately €960, issued by Revenue in a single payment.
