Working from Home Tax Refund

pennypincher3562

Hi

I'm currently filling out the form for a working from home tax rebate. I have come to the question where they ask 'was your office space used exclusively as an office, or for other purposes.'

I used my living room, so it wasn't exclusively used as an office.

Will HMRC take issue that my living room was also used as an office, and not issue me with the tax refund?

Cheers
PennyPincher3562

Spidernick

Does your contract stipulate that you work at home or is this done on a voluntary basis? If the latter then you won't be able to claim any relief if your employer doesn't contribute anything to your expenses:

https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home

pennypincher3562

Spidernick wrote: »

Does your contract stipulate that you work at home or is this done on a voluntary basis? If the latter then you won't be able to claim any relief if your employer doesn't contribute anything to your expenses:

https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home

Hi SpiderNick

It wasn't voluntary. There was no option as my employer was located thousands of miles away.

My employer has contributed nothing towards expenses.

Thanks
PennyPincher3562

Caz3121

[QUOTE=pennypincher3562;69642471
I'm currently filling out the form for a working from home tax rebate. [/QUOTE]

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5320068
did you not do this in August?

pennypincher3562

Caz3121 wrote: »

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5320068
did you not do this in August?

Did I fill out the form in August? No. It's taken the HMRC over 3 months to send it to me, after I made the initial enquiry at the beginning of September, and phoned them several times afterwards.

HMRC said I didn't need a P87, but another form, which arrived about 3 days ago.

jimmo

pennypincher3562 wrote: »

Hi

I'm currently filling out the form for a working from home tax rebate. I have come to the question where they ask 'was your office space used exclusively as an office, or for other purposes.'

What form is that then?
For those not in Self-Assessment the standard form for claiming expenses in employment is a p87 and, as far as I am aware, it does not ask anything as specific as whether you use a room exclusively for work.
In fact, its not even a relevant question for people in employment because the expenses allowable are rather restricted. So much so that it is often better to claim the standard £4 per week.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM32815.htm
The self-employed are subject to different rules and, for them the question of whether they have a room set aside exclusively for use in their business is very relevant.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/BIM47810.htm
It seems rather likely that you and HMRC are at cross purposes and, unless you put a stop to it, you will chase each other round and round in circles getting nowhere.
One other important thing. On one of your other threads you are talking about Self-assessment. For the years you are trying to claim expenses in employment, which years are in SA and which years aren’t?
However, if you can explain what the form you have got is, people may be able to give more specific advice.

pennypincher3562

Hi Jimmo

The form they have sent me has no numbers on it like 'P87.' It has 'Home as Office Expenses' written on the front of it, and to be honest that sounds exactly what I am after. It says I can claim a standard rate of £3 per week, for using my home as an office.

It is also clear from the wording of the document that it's not referring to self employment, but rather to employees who work from home (I did this for 7 years as an employee.)

I have been registered as self employed between 2011-2015, and also as a full time employee for a company between 2008-2015. However in the form there is no indication that they are interested in self employment.

I am pretty confident I have the correct form - the questions match my situation precisely. My employer was thousands of miles away, and I had no option but to work from my living room.

In the form they ask if my living room was used exclusively as an office (the answer is no.) I am wondering, why are they asking this?

Also, another road block is that I've lost my employment contract which was emailed to me years ago. I doubt I will be able to get it from the company, as I have left, and supposedly they are undergoing business difficulties.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers
PennyPincher3562

Caz3121

pennypincher3562 wrote: »

It says I can claim a standard rate of £3 per week, for using my home as an office.

not sure if that is a typo but from here it should be the tax relief on £4 per week
https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home
this would mean a refund of £41.60 per year for a basic rate taxpayer and £83.20 per year for a 40% taxpayer
Your claim can go back 4 years maximum

Dazed_and_confused

You do realise that as someone who has completed Self Assessment tax returns you can't make a claim for use of home as office expenses. If you submit those forms all HMRC will do is return them and tell you they cannot deal with it as you have completed Self Assessment tax returns.

They may invite you to amend your tax returns to include the amount you are claiming but I think there are limits to how many years back you can amend a return (possibly just the 2014:15 and the 2013:14 returns) and for the 2 earlier years you would have to make a special type of claim as the time limit for amending your return has passed (Jimmo probably knows more about this as he was a tax inspector I think).

Also, to amend your tax return simply required you to provide details of what amount you want to include in what box of your return e.g £100 in job expenses on the employment part of the return for whichever employer you worked for.

Overall I think you're wasting your time with the forms you've got although I suppose it may help you work out how you need to include on each tax return.

Also, the figures Caz3121 has shown are based on you actually having paid some tax - if you didn't pay any then you won't get any money back, it's not like the tax office pay you £3 or £4 per week!!

antrobus

Caz3121 wrote: »

not sure if that is a typo but from here it should be the tax relief on £4 per week...

It's not a typo.

The weekly rate was £3 until it was increased to £4 from 2012/13 onwards.

antrobus

jimmo wrote: »

What form is that then?
For those not in Self-Assessment the standard form for claiming expenses in employment is a p87 and, as far as I am aware, it does not ask anything as specific as whether you use a room exclusively for work. ...

The OP states that the form asks the question "was your office space used exclusively as an office, or for other purposes".

If you put that into Google, you only get one result. Which is this thread. Which leads me to doubt that it is a HMRC form.