Leo Varadkar suggests Budget will include tax incentives for people working from home

"There will be space within the tax package for some measures to promote remote working."

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has suggested that the Budget will include tax incentives for people working from home. Speaking in Washington on Tuesday, Varadkar said that incentives for remote working will likely be included in the Budget which is set to be released on 12 October. The Tánaiste said that the incentives could include help with costs for lighting and heating for people working from home, however, little details are known as of yet. "There will be a tax package in the Budget of roughly €500m, most to that will be used to index tax credits and bands, making sure that if people do get a pay increase in the coming year, they will be able to keep most of it and not lose most of it to tax and that is important at a time of high inflation," Varadkar told reporters. "There will be space within the tax package for some measures to promote remote working, Minister Donohoe is working on that and I haven't seen the details yet but it is intended to promote remote working which we think will be a big part of the future and important for work-life balance and having more people working in rural Ireland." Varadkar told RTÉ that government would like to have a system in place "whereby if someone is working from home and they incur costs, particularly utility costs, they'd be able to defray that in some way against the tax they pay." "That exists already but it hasn't been updated in many years," Varadkar added.