About 875,000 people worked from home in the pandemic but only 90,000 have claimed the applicable tax relief.

Taxback.com estimates than eight out of ten people are missing out on the relief, and that three in four remote worker do not fully understand the application of the allowance when it comes to a house-share situation.

Chief executive Barry Cahill (pictured) said: “In our own survey, only 17% of the respondents who work from home said they had claimed the relief.

“We have been advising any clients working from home to collate their bills and claim this relief. Anyone not doing so is missing out on ‘free money’, and while the amounts may be small it’s hard to understand why anyone would not want this money in their pocket instead of leaving it with the taxman.”

Remote working relief allows people to claim for tax relief of 10% of the cost of electricity and heating incurred and 30% of the cost of broadband, apportioned over the number of days a person worked from home over the course of the year.

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“If you share your bills with someone else, the cost is divided between you, based on the amount paid by each person. With thousands of people in the working from home brigade sharing their accommodation with others, eligibility for this relief for people in this scenario is likely to be commonplace,” Cahill explained

Remote workers are entitled to a tax-free payment of €3.20 per day from their employer to cover the additional costs of their utility and broadband bills.

For those whose employers have not been in a position to make this payment, a claim on Remote Working relief allows people to claim back a portion of their utility and broadband bills for each day they work from home, specifically 10% of the cost of electricity and heat incurred and 30% of the cost of broadband.

“Unfortunately the value of claiming remote worker relief compared to being paid the €3.20 per day by the employer is significantly less.

"If we take a person working from home for 210 days with broadband and heating bills of €3,000, the €3.20 per day would be worth €672 to that employee, whereas if they were to claim remote worker relief it would be worth less than €100,” Cahill added