Employed/based at home - tax implications?

madmittens

Is anyone able to advise please?

I am employed (PAYE - higher rate) and currently based in a company office. However this is likely to change (imminently) to my being officially based at home.

What are the tax implications of this? Can I offset increased household expenses (heating, electricity etc) against tax on a self-assessment form? Anything else I should be aware of?

Any comments gratefully received - thanks in advance.

madmittens

Pennywise

It is your employer who should be compensating you for your additional home running costs, not the rest of us through taxes.

HMRC allow a standard £3 per week deduction from your taxable pay, so if you are a 20% tax payer, thats a tax reduction of 60p per week, but that is only if you "have to" work at home, i.e. the employer doesn't provide office facilities and working from home is a condition of your employment.

It is possible to claim more than £3 per week against your taxable income, but only if you can prove that your home running costs are over £3 per week more because you're working from home - i.e. the extra costs of heating & lighting, metered water, etc., so you need some way of proving it - i.e. year on year comparison of these costs showing an increase in useage when you started working from home and being able to prove there was no other reason - unsurprisingly, most people just take the £3 per week due to the onerous record keeping of trying to claim more.

Your best bet is to negotiate with your employer to get a salary increase that will cover your costs.