working from home

freddiejf

Hello,

I am employed but I am classed as field based working from home. I have a laptop and my back room is used as an office. I want to buy new office furniture (the company won't pay for it), can I buy it and claim it back from the tax man? If so how do I do it? Please note easy to understand answer would be appreciated as I am clueless when it comes to tax stuff.

Thanks
Freddie

Murdina

The key thing is that your job must require you to be based at home. Have a look at the examples in
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/senew/se32790.htm
Ask your employer if there are other employees in your situation and see what they claim. Assuming you meet the requirements that you have to work from home and have no office available you can claim what are called capital allowances on the furniture - look at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM36730.htm
and the pages around that. However do be aware that HMRC might want you to apportion it if you use the office for personal stuff; also the whole capital allowance thing is changing in 2008. The allowance is a set percentage of the cost and then you claim 25% of what is left after that each year. It is not that easy to follow for the layman to be honest. If you are in self-assessment you can claim the expenses on the employment page otherwise just write in and set out what you want to claim. I do think employers ought to be a bit more proactive in situations like this and give employees guidance on the tax position if they want them to work from home.