Employees who choose to work remotely should be required to pay a “privilege” tax to help lower income workers who don’t have the “luxury” of remote work, Deutsche Bank asserts in a controversial new research report.

The privilege tax will offset the immediate financial benefits that employees who work from home receive, including reduced costs for clothing, food and travel, according to "What We Must Do to Rebuild,” a report from Deutsche Bank.

"Working from home will be part of the 'new normal' well after the pandemic has passed. We argue that remote workers should pay a tax for the privilege," Jim Reid, Deutsche Bank’s global head of fundamental credit strategy and thematic research, said in the report.

“Our calculations suggest the amounts raised could fund material income subsidies for low-income earners who are unable to work remotely and thus assume more 'old economy' and health risks," Reid added.

Employees making $55,000 a year would be taxed an average of $10 per day under the plan. Strategists at the bank said the tax would raise $48 billion a year, which could be used to offset income gaps for workers making under $30,000 a year.

The tax would amount to a 10% levy on even middle-income workers, which bank researchers defend. "The $48 billion raised could pay for a $1,500 grant to the 29 million workers who cannot work from home and earn under $30,000 a year,” said Luke Templeman, a Deutsche Bank strategist. 

The report says the tax should only apply during times of healthy, not when the government advises people to work from home, as happened during the pandemic. The tax should exclude low-income workers and the self-employed, the bank advised.

Deutsche Bank estimates the proportion of Americans who worked from home (WFH) during the pandemic surged to 56% of the population.

"The sudden shift to WFH means that, for the first time in history, a big chunk of people have disconnected themselves from the face-to-face world yet are still leading a full economic life," researcher Luke Templeman said in the report. "That means remote workers are contributing less to the infrastructure of the economy whilst still receiving its benefits."

Google employees would be just one set of workers who would be subject to the privilege tax. The company informed employees they would not be expected to return to the office until well into 2021, according to an email sent by Google CEO Sundar Pichai in July, who said he wanted employees to have “flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months.”