Benefits of Home-Working?

geckoboy

hi all,
I've just started working from home for my employer and I wondered what benefits or tax reliefs might be available? I'm using my personal electricity and heating, so I am hoping that there is some sort of governmental payback that I can apply for.
cheers
geckoboy

Fiver29

I worked from home years back and at the time you could claim a % of your bills. so if you had an office in one room, and your house was a 5 room house you could claim 20% of your bills.

I don't know if that has changed now though.

geckoboy

many thanks Fiver! i'll look into it

PlutoinCapricorn

If you are an employee on PAYE, and your contract of employment states that your main place of work is your home address, then there is a flat rate of £3 per week that can be claimed without an investigation.

If you offer to work from home, then there is nothing for you: it is only self employed people who can offset legitimate running costs against their income.

geckoboy

excellent , thanks v much :T

Lube

You might have to inform your insurance company as the building is being used for buisness

PlutoinCapricorn

Insurance would probably apply only if you were receiving clients, giving treatment to people or converted a room into a store room or photographic studio.

If you are just working online, there is no change of use.

cymru78

PlutoinCapricorn wrote: »

If you are an employee on PAYE, and your contract of employment states that your main place of work is your home address, then there is a flat rate of £3 per week that can be claimed without an investigation.

I've recently started working from home part time.
I'm not yet on PAYE as the business I am working for is waiting for it to arrive.
How do I go about claiming this £3 per week once I am on PAYE?

Fiver29

Doh! Sorry, I missed the employer bit, I was thinking of being S/E and working form home.

However this link may still be useful

PlutoinCapricorn

It is best to go straight to the source of the rules:

www.hmrc.gov.uk/MANUALS/eimanual/EIM01476.htm

PasturesNew

Fiver29 wrote: »

I worked from home years back and at the time you could claim a % of your bills. so if you had an office in one room, and your house was a 5 room house you could claim 20% of your bills.

I don't know if that has changed now though.

I believe for people who are actually self-employed, using space at home for work, the calculation is:
[A] how much space in your whole house is taken up with the work environment
how many hours/day is it used.

To keep the maths simple, if your bills are £150/month (£5/day) and you use 1/5th of your home, and you use it 5 days/week for 8 hours/day, then it'd work out like:

£150/5 = £30
£30/7*5 = £21.42
£21.42/24*8 = £7.14 can be offset for tax purposes.