During Covid-19, many people worked from home and some employers opted to offer them extra reimbursement for diverse additional costs, for example, extra heating costs, coffee, tea and stationery. In 2021 this reimbursement had to be booked to the discretionary space of the Works Costs Ruling but in January 2022 the Dutch government introduced the possibility for a fixed tax-free WFH allowance.

According to the new legislation, an employer is allowed to provide a tax-free allowance of €2 per day to their employees who work from home. It can be either calculated based on the actual days of working from home, or employers can provide a fixed WFH allowance per month. The latter can only be provided to employees who are expected to work from home for a minimum of 128 days per based on the full-time employment contract (214 workable days). If the employee actually works less days than this, this is acceptable as long as at least 70% of the expected days are spent actually working from home. Please note that employers are allowed to pay more than €2 per day as WFH allowance. However, the excess will be considered a taxable benefit and, thus, will not be included in the tax exemption.

If the employee is also entitled to a tax-free commuting reimbursement, this can be paid alongside the WFH allowance. However, if the employee works half a day at the office and half a day at home, the employer can only pay the commuting allowance OR the WFH allowance for that day. It is not permitted to pay both.

Some other costs that are made by the employer to ensure that the home working space is ergonomically compliant can also be offered as a tax-free benefit, but not all. Feel free to reach out to us if you would like more information about this or would like our help in drafting a WFH policy for your employees.

Contact our office at +31 (0) 85 0187471 or via info@briddge.com!