Working from Home Tax Refund

pennypincher3562

Thanks for that Jimmo. So I put the £196 (49 weeks x £4) in 'other expenses and capital allowances.'

Will this not start some sort of 'HMRC enquiry,' as there is no room to actually explain that this expense is for using my home as an office?

Whilst my claim is very genuine, I'm obviously not very tax literate and am concerned that an enquiry could be initiated. I'd find it difficult to deal with an enquiry due to my poor knowledge, plus I'm concerned it could hold up a significant tax refund I'm eligible for.

If they don't like my expenses claim, would they just say 'you are not getting it,' or ask me to provide mountains of paperwork?

Thanks
PennyPincher3562

TheCyclingProgrammer

Putting £196 in other expenses is not going to trigger an enquiry. If you ever get a routine enquiry into your tax return you would simply tell them what it was for if asked. As it is not more than £4/week no further evidence is required.

pennypincher3562

jimmo wrote: »

You can still do all that now if you wish remembering that your claim will be £3 per week for 2011/12 and £4 per week for 2012/13 onwards.
As to the form they sent you, if the letter you wrote in August simply asked for a form on which to make your claim or you didn’t include all the information needed to enable them to amend your earlier Returns then HMRC have done the right thing in sending the form to you.

Hello Again

I am over the biggest hurdle i.e. completing my self assessment, whilst including the working from home expenses and finally submitting it :-)

However, I've got one or two smaller hurdles I need to clear.

I phoned HMRC the other morning and managed to get through (0755 AM.)

I asked various questions, including further queries about claiming the 'work from home expenses.'

Most of the info they gave me over the phone corresponded to that given to me by Jimmo. However, one bit of info possibly didn't. The HMRC said to claim the 2011/2012 'work from home expenses' I should use the form they sent me.

Does the above bit of info sound correct, or have I picked them up wrong (quite possible.)

Thanks
PennyPincher3562

jimmo

Like The CyclingPrrogrammer, I would say that the chances of your case being selected for an Enquiry for an expenses claim of £196 are miniscule. However they are definitely not nil.
The vast majority of Enquiries are selected by human beings using intelligence gathered by computer but there are some, randomly selected by the computer system without human involvement, to ensure they are truly random.
Nobody can guarantee that you will not be one of those cases.
As to your question about filling in the HMRC claim form for 2011/12 I can see no logical reason why HMRC would insist on using a claim form for 2011/12 but not for 2012/13 nor 2013/14.
To my way of thinking you either cover all three years by letter or all 3 years with HMRC forms and I rather think you’ve misheard what HMRC told you but you may want to think about what you are going to do once you have read this. Are you going to phone HMRC again and say some anonymous stranger on a forum says they are wrong?
I rather think the time has come when you’ve got to make your own mind up on this. If you want the repayment do one thing or the other (letter or form). If you are that afraid of an Enquiry then forget the whole thing and live without the money.

pennypincher3562

Thanks Jimmo. It's getting late in the evening, but what does an enquiry involve? Like I said, my claims are genuine, but I don't think I have the expertise to challenge any enquiry.

I am considering just ditching applying for this refund, if it may end up more trouble than it's worth.

If they just send me a letter saying 'no,' that would be fine however.