Tax relief for working from home (a bit)

AlwaysHappy

Hello there, turned on the radio last week just in time to catch a tax advised doing a question and answer slot. I had children in the car at the time so was only half listening, but one of the questions was, when this caller got in from work he was expected to do some work from home, could he claim any allowance for electricity, phone etc, in a nutshell the adviser seemed to say definitely, it would be easiest for him to claim the standard £3 a week
My question is: My husband is a project manager, employed by a large company and whilst it isn't in his T&C that he works from home, every night he is on the laptop, (ok, some nights not by absolute necessity) but probably 3/5 it is necessary as he is involved in a project, and most weekends not only do we have the laptop to contend with but usually 2/3 teleconferences a day (he's paid 9-5 mon - fri- harumph) does anyone think he could claim and how would you prove it was necessary? Thanks.

AlwaysHappy

Have just looked at the HMRC site and says "if you have to", how is that measured? If he didn't, the project wouldn't get delivered and he'd be sacked, we can obviously prove the weekend calls (if we were that sad) but not sure how much is implied pressure, nothing is written down that he has to work from home, should I just give up on the thought.

fengirl_2

His contract of employment would need to state that he is required to work from home in order for him to claim this relief.

AlwaysHappy

Thanks for that, I don't think it has, though we haven't actually had a contract of employment for this role, he got promoted from within the company to the job, took his exams through work and had ended up doing all the hours under the sun, getting paid for 35 and teleconferences on a weekend - good deal!!!!