Working from home

dae27

Hi
I'm full-time PAYE employee of a national company. Because of the nature of my job, I am based at home and drive to meet clients in a30 mile range.



I do not have a company car, but have to have decent broadband at home to acess company files etc.


Question is, are there any tax allowance(s) I can claim by being home-based?


Many thanks


Dave

Caz3121

does your contract of employment state you are home based?
https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home

TheCyclingProgrammer

I believe the rules state an employer can arrange and pay for broadband access to be provided in your home if it’s required to do your job and so long as there is a policy about reasonable personal use it would not normally be a BIK. However it would need to be contracted in the employer name.

If you already have broadband you cannot claim tax relief on this, even partially.

What you can do is claim tax relief for working from home in general if your contract requires your home to be your normal place of work. If it does you can either:

* Claim a use of home expense at a fixed rate of £4/week or £18/month without any further evidence.

* Claim any additional costs of you working from home with some evidence on how you reached that figure.

Bear in mind whichever value you claim you would only get tax relief on that amount.

Additional household costs normally means extra electricity, water etc. not a proportion of fixed costs although I suppose if you could show you needed to upgrade your broadband package for work purposes you could theoretically include the difference in price in your calculation. Whether or not HMRC would accept that if challenged is a different story.

dae27

Thanks for the info, not that much, but "every little helps"

tebthereb

Isn’t the £4 per week an amount that can be paid tax free, not claimed as an expense?

TheCyclingProgrammer

tebthereb wrote: »

Isn’t the £4 per week an amount that can be paid tax free, not claimed as an expense?

It’s both, however you can only claim it if you are contractually obliged to work from home, not if you simply choose to work from home.

00ec25

tebthereb wrote: »

Isn’t the £4 per week an amount that can be paid tax free, not claimed as an expense?

the £4 amount can be paid tax free by the employer to their employee

if, on the other hand, the employer does not pay the allowance, then the employee can claim an expense of £4 per week on their tax return and get tax relief on that amount. You can't get the govt to pay you £4/wk

tebthereb

Can one of you point me towards that authority for that please? I know s316a is the one for the £4pw homeworking payments.

Sibbers123

tebthereb wrote: »

Can one of you point me towards that authority for that please? I know s316a is the one for the £4pw homeworking payments.

You are correct - https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim32825

However, if you work from home the majority of the time, I would find it hard to imagine you cannot justify £4 per week additional costs as a result. For a basic rate taxpayer, this will equate to a reduction in tax of £40 so 8 pints of beer where I am from...

TheCyclingProgrammer

tebthereb wrote: »

Can one of you point me towards that authority for that please? I know s316a is the one for the £4pw homeworking payments.

S316a is an exemption that covers payments made by employers to cover employees homeworking costs up to £4/week or £18/month tax free with no further restrictions.

S336 is a deduction which provides for employees to claim tax relief on additional costs incurred by working from home (if you can provide evidence) or up to £4/week or £18/month without further evidence but *only* if the employee has to work from home. They cannot claim this relief if they choose to work from home. It is more restrictive than S316a. The detailed conditions are outlined here:

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim32760

It's possible for relief to be claimed under both sections, e.g. if the employee has to work from home but the employer only pays them £2/week they can claim additional relief on a further £2/week, as highlighted here:

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim32830

tebthereb

Sorry but where does any of that say £4pw can be claimed as a deduction without evidence?