Don't Forget To Claim Working From Home Tax Relief

Homeworking became normalised during the Coronavirus pandemic and the Government made temporary changes to the tax reliefs available for employees ...

Working from Home tax relief is usually available when the employer mandates it. Employees can therefore claim a proportion of actual home expenses such as gas and electricity, water and business telephone calls from their own devices.

"These sums may be complicated to calculate so an employee can claim £6 per week, which is £312 for a whole year!"

There isn't a requirement to reduce this rate if the employee works part of a week at home and the other part at their employer's premises. It can be claimed where an employer does not reimburse expenses.

Now, the relief is given at the employee's marginal tax rate, so 20% taxpayers save £62.40 per year when working from home. Higher-rate taxpayers would benefit from larger savings. However, if an employee believes they need to claim more, then evidence will be required to justify their assertion. It would probably just be easier to claim the £6 per week allowance.

If you submit a self-assessment tax return, simply claim £312 as a deductible expense on the employment pages of your return. If you are part of a PAYE scheme, then you can apply to HMRC for it and have your PAYE code adjusted accordingly.

"A backdated claim can be made online!"

You may have been aware of the Working from Home tax relief in 2020/21 because the pandemic was fresh in all of our minds, but if you forgot to claim it in either 2020/21 or 2021/22 then don't worry.

If you feel inspired to find out more about anything I've said here, do call me on 01908 774320 or leave a comment below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.