What awaits us at Prinsjesdag? On the bill to reimburse employees for remote work

Tomorrow is a special day in the Netherlands. Every third Tuesday in September, the country celebrates Budget Day or Princes Day (Prinsjesdag). On this day, the inauguration of the parliamentary year takes place.

This year, King Willem-Alexander will deliver his "speech from the throne" in the Great Church in The Hague, not in the Knights' Hall. In connection with the coronavirus, the public, like last year, is asked to watch the ceremony in front of TV screens, and not gather in the streets along the path of the king.

At a joint session of the Senate (Eerste Kamer) and the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer), the monarch will announce the government's plans for the coming year (s). After that, the Minister of Finance will submit the state budget to the second chamber (aka Tweede Kamer) of parliament. Budget day is only tomorrow, but draft laws that the king will talk about have long been leaked to the press.

We will try to highlight the most important ones. By the way, you can read about how laws are "born" here... Today we will tell you about a bill that concerns the costs of a telecommuting employee. It aims to exempt the costs of an employer paying compensation to an employee working from home from tax.

Already, many employees who work outside the office receive a flat, monthly tax-free premium from their employer. But they, as a rule, relate to payment for the Internet and mobile communications.

However, the coronavirus pandemic has brought significant changes to the way people live and work. For about a year now, many office workers have been working only at home. This means that they additionally consume electricity, water, gas, coffee, tea, toilet paper. This also includes depreciation of the chair (chair), desktop and computer. Experts have calculated that 2 euros are accumulated per day.

Employers are regularly asked to reimburse these costs. In particular, the two largest trade unions actively support this: the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV) and the Christian National Trade Union (CNV).
But this is currently not regulated in any way. Fortunately, a bill that would exempt employer costs (employee compensation) from tax is included in the tax plan package for 2022.

In order for it to take effect from January next year, it must be approved in the House of Representatives, and then in the Senate. The final point will be put by the king when he signs the document. Typically, the laws referred to on Budget Day go into effect in December.

We wrote more about the Day of Princes 2020 here.