published on 03/02/2021 at 08:52
Allowances paid by the employer covering teleworking costs, which can take the form of allowances, lump-sum reimbursements or even reimbursements of actual costs, will always be exempt from income tax …
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(Boursier.com) – The fight against the spread of Covid-19 has resulted by a massive increase in the use of teleworking from home, leading a large number of employees to incur, for the first time, professional expenses made necessary by this unprecedented organization of work.
In order to guide taxpayers in their declaration of income for the year 2020, the Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Recovery has planned, to facilitate the tax treatment of professional expenses related to teleworking, the following measures: paid by the employer covering home teleworking costs, which may take the form of allowances, lump-sum reimbursements or reimbursements of actual expenses, will always be exempt from income tax.
In practice, it is up to employers to identify, in the information they send to the tax authorities, these allowances exempt from income tax … Thus, the amount of taxable income pre-filled on the tax return should not, in principle, include such allowances..
Employees can make sure of this when declaring their 2020 income, by checking the pre-filled amounts against their payslips (or the annual tax certificate issued by their employer).
Flat-rate allowances
To facilitate the procedures for taxpayers, specific terms and conditions are defined. with regard to flat-rate allowances. The latter will be exempt up to a limit of 2.5 euros per day of teleworking at home, i.e. an exemption of 50 euros for a month including 20 days of teleworking. In any event, the special flat-rate allowance will be presumed exempt. within the annual limit of 550 euros.
This tolerance is applicable if the allowance covers exclusively professional expenses incurred for teleworking at home., to the exclusion of running costs generally required for the exercise of the profession, which include in particular travel costs between home and place of work and catering costs.
For employees who have opted for the deduction of professional expenses for their real amount and justified, the costs incurred for the needs of their professional activity, when it was carried out in the form of teleworking at home, may be deducted up to the amounts mentioned in point 2, the taxpayer retaining the possibility of deducting them for their exact amount if more favorable …
The terms of application of these measures as well as details on the nature and amount of deduction of costs linked to teleworking, in particular costs linked to the professional use of private premises, will soon be specified on the tax website. gouv.fr.
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