Lavori da casa? Ecco quando hai diritto al rimborso per i termosifoni

Bills swell while deadlines do the same. You work from home, but the heat isn’t free—for you or your employer.

I remember a Tuesday that smelled like coffee and warm dust from the radiator. The kettle hissed, the laptop fan hummed, and the room clicked as the pipes woke up behind the wall. Outside, fog stuck to the windows; inside, deadlines stacked like cups. A message pinged: “Can we talk about reimbursing your heating costs?” It felt oddly intimate—like someone asking how many hours your living room breathes. I stared at my bill, then at the valve on the radiator. It’s a simple question with a complicated answer. Who pays for that heat?

Here’s the core truth, the one that rarely appears in cheerful HR emails. **There is no automatic right to heating reimbursements in Italy.** Smart working—regulated by Law 81/2017—sets the frame, yet the details live in agreements: your individual deal, a collective contract (CCNL), or a formal company policy. If none of those say “we’ll cover part of utility costs,” you’re likely on your own. Still, employers can voluntarily reimburse. And many do, especially where remote work is part of the culture rather than a temporary fix.

Take Marco, an analyst in Turin. Last winter his company paid a €35 monthly “remote stipend.” It helped, but it wasn’t tied to any actual expense and was taxed like salary. Lucia, a designer in Bologna, did it differently. She negotiated a proportional reimbursement for heating based on hours worked at home and the size of her workroom. Her employer treated it as a documented expense, not a perk, and she saw the difference on her payslip. Italy’s Smart Working Observatory counts roughly 3.6 million remote workers in 2023—and more firms are experimenting with utility reimbursements during the colder months.

Law meets reality in the details. **Your right exists if it’s written—contract, collective agreement, or a corporate policy.** And the tax side matters: the Italian Revenue Agency has clarified that lump-sum allowances are typically taxable, while reimbursements tied to specific, documented work expenses can be excluded from taxable income. Heating falls into that second bucket only when you can show a logical, measurable link to the job—hours of use, work area, and the heating season. One more twist for 2024: companies can also use fringe benefits (up to €1,000, or €2,000 with dependent children) to cover household utilities like gas and electricity tax-free, whether or not you work from home. That’s a separate door you can knock on.

Start with a simple method your manager and payroll can understand. Pick a room or a defined area where you usually work. Track your remote days and hours during the heating season. Then apply a proportion to your bill: total heating cost x share of the home used for work x share of time used for work. If your workroom is 10 m² in a 70 m² flat, that’s 14.3%. If you work from home two days out of five, time share is 40%. Multiply the two and you get 5.7% of the bill. Not perfect, but it’s clean and defensible. Cold hands on the keyboard are a good motivator.

Keep it human. Photograph your meter, keep PDFs of your gas bills, note your WFH calendar. Don’t wait for April to reconstruct December. Ask HR which proof they accept before you start. Some teams prefer a monthly spreadsheet; others want a quarterly summary with copies of invoices. We’ve all had that moment when a burst of energy at the start of winter fades by February. Soyons honnêtes : personne ne fait vraiment ça tous les jours. Create a weekly ritual—ten minutes on Friday—to update your log. You’ll thank yourself when payroll asks for details.

There’s a tax nuance worth spelling out in plain words. **Lump-sum “smart working” allowances are usually taxable, while documented reimbursements tied to work can be tax-free.** Payroll needs your math, your dates, and your bills to keep that advantage. If your employer prefers simplicity, suggest using the 2024 fringe benefit allowance to cover part of your utility bills instead. It’s not a right, but it’s a win–win when budgets are tight.

“Make the invisible visible: hours, area, season. If the method is reasonable and consistent, it tends to pass HR and tax checks,” says a Milan-based labor consultant who reviews remote work policies for SMEs.

• What to keep: bills, meter photos, WFH calendar, a simple calculation sheet.
• What to agree: room or area used, reference period (e.g., Nov–Mar), payment cadence.
• What to ask: tax treatment (reimbursement vs fringe benefit), HR contact for reviews.

When does reimbursement become a genuine right—and not just a kind gesture? Three paths. The first is explicit contract language that lists utilities among reimbursable costs for remote work. The second is your CCNL or a company-wide policy that applies to everyone in the same situation. The third is a documented expense plan, approved by HR, that turns your heating from “home overhead” into a work cost by method and proof. Negotiate before the cold hits. Put it in an email. Clarity warms a room almost as well as a radiator.

Here’s a logic you can borrow with confidence. During the heating season legally permitted in your climate zone, you work X hours at home per week. Your work zone is Y% of your home. Apply X and Y to each heating bill, then send a summary at the end of every month. Align with payroll on the format and the deadline. If that fails, ask about using the year’s fringe benefit allowance to cover part of gas or electricity bills tax-free. It’s simpler to administer and often faster to approve.

Now the part nobody tells you. Reimbursement rarely fixes everything—heat costs jump with prices and old radiators waste energy. A small behavior shift helps your wallet and your case. Bleed your radiators, check the boiler schedule, close the door to your workroom, and wear layers so you can run lower temperatures while you’re on calls. **If your employer sees you controlling costs, your request for a fair share lands better.** That’s not just economics. It’s trust, built in degrees Celsius.

Some companies go a step further and set seasonal caps—say, reimbursements only across the official heating period, with a clear ceiling per month. Ask for clarity on caps and adjustments when bills spike mid-winter. A fair policy adapts, even a little. If you’re freelance, the rules shift again: your deductions follow business expense logic, not employment reimbursements. Different story, same radiator.

Negotiation script? Keep it short. “I work from home two days a week, using a 10 m² room. I propose reimbursing 5.7% of my heating bills from November to March, supported by my invoices. If that’s heavy to process, we can use the 2024 fringe benefit allowance for utilities.” It’s tidy, respectful, and clear. If your company says no today, you’ve still set a baseline for the next review—or the next job offer.

Talk to colleagues, too. Culture shifts when people compare notes, and payroll loves consistency across teams. What begins as a single request can become a template. That’s how these things move from “maybe” to policy.

Everything in this story is strangely intimate: your rooms, your hours, your warmth. Without a line in a contract, a reimbursement doesn’t magically appear. With a fair method and a little documentation, it often does. Share your approach with HR before winter kicks in, align on proof, and pick a path—reimbursement or fringe benefit—that keeps taxes friendly. The point isn’t to nickel-and-dime every degree. It’s to be treated like a professional whose home has become part of the workplace. Heat is invisible until the bill arrives. Make it visible, once.

FAQ :

• Do I have a legal right to heating reimbursement when working from home?Not by default. You gain a right if your contract, CCNL, or company policy says so, or if HR approves a documented reimbursement plan tied to your actual work use.
• How should I calculate the share of heating to claim?Use a proportional method: bill amount x percentage of home used as workspace x percentage of time worked from home during the heating season.
• Is a monthly lump-sum allowance better than a documented reimbursement?Lump sums are simpler but typically taxable. Documented reimbursements tied to work use can be excluded from taxable income if handled correctly by payroll.
• Can my employer use fringe benefits to cover heating?Yes. For 2024, employers can reimburse household utilities within the annual fringe benefit cap (€1,000, or €2,000 with dependent children) tax-free, separate from any WFH agreement.
• What if my company refuses?Ask for a written policy stance and revisit before winter. You can propose a low-effort method or suggest the fringe benefit route. If nothing moves, factor it into salary talks or future offers.