If teleworking avoids many travel costs, it is not without financial consequences.

By dint of spending their days on their computer at home due to the health crisis, employees have seen their electricity and heating bills increase.

The State has therefore decided to take this exceptional situation into account by renewing the tax measures linked to telework costs which had already been taken in 2020.

Your exempt allowances

Are you one of the lucky ones whose company covers all or part of the costs of working from home?

You do not have to declare these allowances in respect of 2021 income. Indeed, whether the boost from your employer took the form of allowances, lump sum reimbursements or reimbursements on invoices, it is in all cases exempt. income tax, within certain limits.

In detail, the tax authorities provide an exemption limited to 2.50 euros per day, 13.75 euros per week, 55 euros per month and 580 euros per year.

Your employer must separate these allowances from the rest of your compensation so that they are not counted in the pre-populated amount of taxable resources on your tax return.

Be careful to check the figures carefully when looking at your taxes.

Actual deduction possible

Whether or not you have received compensation from your company, you benefit by default from the traditional 10% flat-rate allowance, automatically applied to the amounts you declare in salaries and wages.

Depending on your situation, it may be more interesting to deduct your actual professional expenses, especially if you still had significant expenses unrelated to your telework.

In this case, it is therefore necessary to determine the exact cost of your professional activities carried out outdoors, such as that of your home-office journeys for example, according to the usual rules.

Once this amount has been defined, those who have not received a telework allowance will be able to add the costs related to the latter.

Similarly, when the allowances paid by the company do not cover all the expenses related to working from home, it is again possible to deduct them in real terms.

But beware, in this specific case, you must in return declare the sums received – which therefore become taxable – by reintegrating them into your wages.

Package or exact cost?

Do you want to deduct your actual telework expenses?

Two options are possible.

For the sake of simplification, the Tax Department proposes to apply the same flat rate as that mentioned for the exemption from allowances.

It is therefore a question of counting a cost of 2.50 euros per day of working from home (13.75 euros per week, 55 euros per month or 580 euros per year), multiplied by the number of days of telework carried out in 2021. .

Another option, much more difficult: calculate the exact amount of all your work from home expenses.

You can thus take into account your expenses for communication, supplies and printed matter, the purchase of computer equipment and furniture for your professional needs or even part of your electricity, water and heating bills, provided that they have not been reimbursed by the employer.

The IRS imposes rather complex pro rata calculation rules.

However, as in any declaration in reality, it is necessary to be able to justify the least penny in the event of control.

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A difficult calculation

If you have decided to calculate the exact amount of all your telework expenses in order to deduct them in real terms, you must refer to notice no. 2041-GP available on Impots.gouv.fr for details of eligible expenses.

Let's take the example of accommodation costs, probably the most complicated to determine.

As soon as you use your home for work, you can deduct electricity, water, heating and home insurance bills from your taxes… but only in certain proportions.

Have you set up your office in the bedroom, living room or a separate room in your home?

According to the tax notice, the deductible share is calculated as follows: the area of ​​the room concerned divided by the total area of ​​the accommodation, then multiplied by the number of hours teleworked over the year (one day of telework is equivalent to 12 hours), compared to the total number of hours for the year (i.e. 8,760 hours).

Good luck to anyone trying to figure it out...

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  • Telework

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