A growing number of Australians working from home are feeling the sting of covering expenses they feel normally would be covered by their employer.
A survey conducted by research agency McCrindle, released on Monday, found 53 per cent of Australian workers felt when they work from home, they run up expenses that would have been otherwise covered by their employer if they were working from their workplace.
These expenses included items such as tea and coffee, electricity, print and copy and other office consumables.
About a third of the 2000 workers surveyed agreed they were facing additional costs including home office equipment (37 per cent), purchasing or upgrading technology devices (35 per cent) and higher internet or data costs (34 per cent).
Principal social researcher Mark McCrindle said work expense resentment was becoming a real phenomenon for many Australian workers.
“They may be too small, or hard to itemise to include on a tax return, and too menial to ask their employer to pay for them, so the costs are being footed by the employee.”
Of course some of the added work from home expenses can be claimed back at tax time.
H&R Block Director of Tax Communications Mark Chapman said since COVID came along there has been a substantial permanent increase in the number of people working from home — meaning more people are claiming those deductions.
But not everything can be claimed.
“If (employees) are going to be working from home, they’re going to incur a lot of expenses for things they wouldn’t otherwise incur — the cost of electricity to heat the room or cool the room, the cost of electricity to power the computer, stationery, tea and coffee, toilet facilities,” he said.
Figures from McCrindle state about 55 per cent of the Australians either work partially from home or fully remotely, meaning they were incurring more of these expenses, compared to the remainder who are at the workplace all the time.
While at home ad hoc costs may be added to remote or work from home expenses, there are a number of savings to be had from this model of work.
According to research by McCrindle those savings can be found in transport, lunches, clothing and largely in childcare.
The research found workplace workers pay the highest costs of $10,289, compared to $6,164 for remote workers.
Mr Chapman said even for small items, such as stationery, it was worth keeping receipts for everything when it comes to tax.
Work from home tax deductions can be calculated using a fixed rate method or actual cost. Mr Chapman said the latter tended to provide a better bigger deduction, however the record keeping requirements were more cumbersome.
In terms of determining items which can and can not be claimed, the Australian Taxation Office provides a comprehensive guide.
And with Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data suggesting offices are unlikely to ever return to pre-pandemic levels, with 88 per cent of Australian workers preferring to work from home at least partially, keeping track of those expenses will become essential for keeping costs down.
(ABC)
