Whilst employees working from home have always been able to make claims against their tax for such expenses, this tax year (6 April 2020 to 5 April 2021) you are able to make a single claim if you have worked at home without detailing the exact number of days and time due to COVID-19.
Working from home tax relief is usually worked out on a per week figure which you can then multiply over the course of a year to a maximum of £62 for those in the lower tax bracket or £124 for those in the higher tax bracket. However due to the huge increase in claims this year from the Coronavirus Pandemic, HRMC have set up a simpler system for this year only which allows you to claim the maximum amount as long as you have worked at home ‘some of the time’ (link to external MSE).
The total relief is £6 per week, which equates to a gain of £1.20 a week for a basic 20% rate taxpayer and £2.40 a week for a higher 40% rate taxpayer. You are unable to claim this additional relief if your employer is already paying you additional costs for working from home.
How to Claim Working From Home Tax Relief
The easiest way to claim is to head to the HMRC microservice that has been set up especially to support this new claim and can be found here. You are only able to claim as an employee of a company, those that fill out a self assessment tax return should detail their expenses there.
If you are unsure if you are able to claim, please get in touch and we are happy to talk this through with you.
