Companies that pay communication costs to employees who work from home have pointed out that they do not know how much communication costs they have paid themselves can be considered for business use and excluded from income tax.
For this reason, the NTA has put together a rule that excludes part of communication costs from income tax depending on the number of days worked from home.
An increasing number of companies are paying communication expenses to employees who work from home, but it is difficult to distinguish between business use and private use of the Internet, and to what extent the communication expenses paid by employees can be used for business purposes. It has been pointed out that it is not clear whether it is okay to exclude it from the taxable income tax.
For this reason, the NTA has compiled rules on how to handle communication costs for employees who have worked from home in terms of income tax, and announced it on the 15th.
According to this, out of the communication cost for one month, the amount of days worked from home will be calculated, and half of it will be regarded as business use and will not be subject to income tax.
In other words, if the monthly communication fee is 6000 yen and you work from home for 15 days, 1500 yen, which is half of 3000 yen, will not be subject to income tax.
If this amount exceeds the allowance from the company, the amount of the allowance will not be subject to income tax.
The government is demanding that companies reduce the number of people who go to work by 70%, and it is expected that the clarification of tax rules regarding communication costs will lead to the further spread of telecommuting.