But then why not just treat it as the company renting (say) a room in the employee's apartment (like a normal rent or sublet)? It seems to be what's actually going on fundamentally anyway, and it bypasses the need to think about any third parties that may be involved in the employee's living arrangement.
The general idea is that an employee working from home saves the company money and generally costs the employee money (or, more generally, the employee's household). The specifics of how it costs them money are just a thought exercise; I was merely presenting one way to look at it (the way I look at it).
