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Tax relief available to employees working from home
You are eligible for working from home tax relief if your employer requires that you work from home on a regular basis. This applies to both part time or full time home working scenarios. You may calculate your expenses based on the additional costs you incur as a result of working from home.
However, you cannot claim tax relief if your employer has either directly reimbursed your expenses or paid you an allowance to cover them.
Many offices have been closed since the start of the 2020-21 tax year due to COVID-19. This means that millions more employees are now eligible. You may make a claim as part of your Self-Assessment Tax Return if you are already obliged to submit one.
You can claim tax relief on:
An allowance of £6.00 a week equating to £312.00 for each of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 tax years; or
The £312.00 annual allowance plus actual amount of the extra costs that you have incurred and not been reimbursed by your employer above the allowance.
What can I include in my working from home expenses?
You may claim the full annual allowance whether you have worked from home for the full year or only a small part of it. Theoretically this applies even if you worked from home for just one day. You just need to show that your employer requests that you do so.
The areas where you may be able to claim working from home tax relief are:
a proportion of gas and electricity bills;
a proportion of metered water bills;
business phone calls including dial-up internet access;
a laptop, printer, office furniture or mobile phone;
office supplies such as paper, batteries or printer ink.
Where you claim the actual costs, you will need to be able to provide evidence to the HMRC. This will be in the form of invoices, receipts or contracts.
In addition, for the costs of equipment, you have two key considerations in determining whether it is eligible for tax relief:
Is it essential for you to do your job?
Do you use the equipment predominantly for work purposes with no significant private use?
For instance, if you have purchased a laptop and your employer has a policy restricting private use, this would support it was purchased for work purposes.