Cabinet plans for working from home allowance of up to €2 per day

Due to the corona crisis, many people are working from home. Many employees and employers want to make agreements to continue to work from home (partly) after the crisis. To this end, as of January 1, 2022, the Cabinet is introducing a non-taxable home office expense allowance of up to €2 per day.

Goal: compensate additional costs for employee due to working from home
Working from home causes additional costs for the employee. For example, for:

• water and electricity consumption;
• heating;
• coffee and tea;
• toilet paper.

Many employers have indicated that they would like to compensate their employees for these additional costs. This is also evident from the survey conducted by employers’ association AWVN among 450 Dutch companies. In it, 60% indicated that working from home two days a week could become the norm.

For the furnishing of a home office, an employer may already give a tax-free allowance. The costs of an office chair, a computer or telephone can be reimbursed by the employer via other targeted exemptions under the work-related costs scheme.

Cabinet proposal: home office allowance of up to €2 per day
In order to allow employers to reimburse their employees for expenses incurred while working from home, the Cabinet proposes the following:

• Following research by the Nibud, the Cabinet is setting the allowance at a maximum of €2 per day or part thereof worked from home.
• The employer does not have to pay payroll taxes for this home-working allowance.
• An untaxed travel allowance for commuting also continues to exist. This amounts to a maximum of € 0.19 per kilometer.
• The employer can either give the home office allowance or the travel allowance per day.
• The employee and employer can make fixed agreements about the number of days per week on which the employee works from home. On this basis, the employer can grant a fixed allowance. In this way, the employer does not have to keep track of the allowance he grants for each working day. The fixed allowance does not need to be adjusted if the employee occasionally works at the office on a home working day, or vice versa. If the employee structurally starts working more from home or goes to the office, then the fixed allowance must be adjusted.

Some employees will work part of the day at home and the other part at the office. Then the employer chooses whether to give the untaxed travel allowance for that workday, or the untaxed home office allowance. Both cannot be done.

Calculation examples

Anton

Works 5 days a week

2 days at home
3 days at the office
Single travel distance: 20 kilometers

Travel allowance: € 82
3/5th of 214 days* = 129 days
129 days x (40 kilometers x € 0.19)/12

Home office allowance: € 14
2/5th of 214 days = 86 days
(86 days x € 2)/12 +

Anton receives € 96 per month

Up to and including 2021
Anton can receive € 136 per month. His employer may give him a travel allowance for his homeworking days because he travels to the office more than 128 days (the 128-day rule): 214 days x (40 kilometers x € 0.19)/12 months. The employer may also give a travel allowance only for the days that Anton actually travels to the office.

Bouchra

Works 4 days a week

2 days at home
2 days at the office
Single travel distance: 12 kilometers

Travel allowance: € 33
2/5 of 214 days = 86 days
86 days x (24 kilometers x € 0.19)/12 months

Home office allowance: € 14
2/5ths of 214 days = 86 days
(86 days x € 2)/12 months +

Bouchra receives € 47 per month

Until 2021
Bouchra can only receive the travel allowance of € 33 per month. She works 2 out of 4 days at the office. So she travels 86 days to the office instead of the 102 days to meet the 128-day rule. She does not receive a travel allowance for all her work days but only for the days she travels.

Camilo

Works 3 days a week

1 day at home
2 days at the office
Single trip distance: 3 kilometers

Travel allowance: € 8
2/5 of 214 days = 86 days
86 days x (6 kilometers x € 0.19)/12 months

Home office allowance: € 7
1/5th of 214 days = 43 days
(43 days x € 2)/12 months +

Camilo receives € 15 per month

Until 2021
Camilo can receive € 12 per month: 3/5 of 214 days = 129 days x (6 kilometers x € 0.19)/12 months. He travels 86 days to the office compared to the 76 days he has to travel at least according to the 128-day rule. He receives travel allowance for all his working days, including his home working day.

• The scheme is based on 214 working days per year for a full-time employee, after deduction of vacations, illness (average sick leave) and public holidays.