Deutsche Bank Research Suggests Home Workers Should Pay More Tax

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12 November 2020

Strategists at Deutsche Bank say that those that choose to work from home should face additional taxes, in order to support lower-paid workers. 

They are proposing a five per cent extra tax of home workers’ salaries, which would then be given to those who cannot work from home.

In the document first reported by Bloomberg, the team argues that: "for years we have needed a tax on remote workers. COVID has just made it obvious.

"Quite simply, our economic system is not set up to cope with people who can disconnect themselves from face-to-face society.

"Those who can WFH receive direct and indirect financial benefits and they should be taxed in order to smooth the transition process for those who have been suddenly displaced."

Deutsche Bank also calculated that such a tax could generate £6.9bn a year, which could pay out grants of £2,000 a year to those whose jobs are at risk.

Is Working From Home a Privilege?

Whilst some will have enjoyed working from home perks such as the lack of commute, opportunity to ditch traditional officewear and closer proximity to their family, Angela Love, Director at Active Workplace Solutions commented that home working can’t always be viewed as a privilege:

“There is simply no logic to Deutsche Bank’s proposal to tax people working from home between lockdowns. Where were these suggestions when people were working remotely pre-pandemic? 

Home workers are not makeshift units to be taxed, they are real people who have gone through an awful lot of upheaval in 2020. I completely support searching for measures to help vulnerable jobs but taxing home workers is not the way.”

Love also suggests that it’s important to consider the individual reasons why some people are working from home:

“Some will have their own health reasons, others may share a property with someone who is vulnerable therefore won’t risk the commute. 

Whilst we can’t deny that some workers and demographics have wonderful settings in their home working environment in order to work productively, others do not. Yet, despite that, they will continue to work from home to keep them and others safe. And that’s admirable. Taxing them for making that call is wrong. 

“Even after COVID-19, some people will still work from home, regardless of whether they actually want to or not. Punishing them for it will only deepen the wound financially and emotionally and this will result in other major long-term effects.”

Picture: a photograph of a person working from their kitchen table

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 12 November 2020

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