Did you read the news article re the working from home relief and you want to get more tax refund/credits from IRD?
Unfortunately, the article was misleading and wrongly advised that there is a $15 tax refund available. This is NOT CORRECT and there are NO additional tax reliefs or credits you can get from the IRD.
One of the changes made by IRD in the Apr 2020 determination, as a response to Covid-19, was allowing employers to pay employees a $15 per week tax-free allowance without requiring evidence to be kept/provided. This $15 allowance is coming out of the employers' pocket and unfortunately will not be refunded/credited/subsidised by any government departments and certainly not IRD!
The employers can, of course, treat it as a normal deductible expense in its accounts for tax purposes as with all the other tax-deductible expenses.
The main criteria for this allowance to apply is the employees have incurred additional expenses (power, heating, phone etc) as a result of being required to work from home because of Covid-19.
The other allowance that came out from this Apr 2020 Determination was the ability to pay or reimburse employees a tax-free allowance of up to $400 for furniture and equipment costs, again, without requiring evidence to be kept/provided.
The period these temporary responses cover is from 17 March to 17 September 2020.
For more details, please see this from IRD - Determination EE002 or contact us for any queries or information.