Martin Lewis: Working from home due to coronavirus, even for a day? Claim TWO years' worth of tax re

MissNinja

Hi,

I would like the WFH tax rebate to stop but I can't find anything on the HMRC website to do so, I'm not working from home anymore (claimed it for 2 years). I'm not self employed btw.

Is there anything I have to do or will it stop automatically in April 23?

My tax code is still the 1278L, not 1257L.

I've googled but nothing comes out on how to make it stop.

thanks in advance

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Phone HMRC and tell them.  8am seems the best time to ring.

mered98

Hi everyone,

Revisiting this in November 2022, following the apparent closure of the microsite. I missed this when it was open, but I understand that I can still claim for the 20-21 and 21-22 tax years.

I've found my way to the "Claim tax relief on expenses for working from home" questionnaire in my online tax account, but I'm confused about exactly what answers I need to give in order to claim the £6 per week / £312 per year flat rate.

Has anyone done this successfully, and if so, what did you fill in?

The "flat rate expenses" section feels reasonable, but the guidance note says it's only for people claiming for equipment maintenance and clothing:



If you say "no" to this and carry on, you get a bunch of questions about claiming business mileage, fuel expenses, overnight expenses, and some others, none of which feel relevant to this flat rate claim. Eventually you get to a question about "using your home as an office", which could be the one:



But really I'm floundering here. It's not at all obvious what I need to do. I called HMRC and they were useless. Just told me to "give your answers on the form" and then cut me off. And that was after an hour on hold.

Any advice very much appreciated.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

mered98 said:

Hi everyone,

Revisiting this in November 2022, following the apparent closure of the microsite. I missed this when it was open, but I understand that I can still claim for the 20-21 and 21-22 tax years.

I've found my way to the "Claim tax relief on expenses for working from home" questionnaire in my online tax account, but I'm confused about exactly what answers I need to give in order to claim the £6 per week / £312 per year flat rate.

Has anyone done this successfully, and if so, what did you fill in?

The "flat rate expenses" section feels reasonable, but the guidance note says it's only for people claiming for equipment maintenance and clothing:



If you say "no" to this and carry on, you get a bunch of questions about claiming business mileage, fuel expenses, overnight expenses, and some others, none of which feel relevant to this flat rate claim. Eventually you get to a question about "using your home as an office", which could be the one:



But really I'm floundering here. It's not at all obvious what I need to do. I called HMRC and they were useless. Just told me to "give your answers on the form" and then cut me off. And that was after an hour on hold.

Any advice very much appreciated.

As far as HMRC are concerned WFH isn't a "flat rate expense".  That's things like uniform laundry or fixed amounts agreed with different trade unions.

Why are you floundering when you get to the WFH section?

mered98

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

As far as HMRC are concerned WFH isn't a "flat rate expense".  That's things like uniform laundry or fixed amounts agreed with different trade unions.

Why are you floundering when you get to the WFH section?

There's an article on MSE entitled "Worked from home due to coronavirus before 6 April 2022? You can still claim tax relief worth up to £280" (I'm blocked from posting a link because my account is too new). It says that for the 20-21 and 21-22 tax years, "there is essentially a flat rate of £6 a week available to you" if you needed to work from home for even one day due to covid lockdown restrictions, and you also don't need to keep any receipts to prove this claim.



It appears that there was previously a dedicated "microsite" you could use to claim this amount, but it seems to have gone away. As far as I understand it though, the eligibility for this relief still remains, and I want to claim it. However, the only way to do this that I can find now is to use the normal working from home tax relief questionnaire, which is fine, but I don't understand which bits I need to complete.

The most likely option that I could find in the questionnaire was the "using your home as an office" section, but I'm not sure if this is right (do I just put £312 in the "amount paid by you" box?), and I was hoping that someone else had already done it and could advise, or had got more useful information from HMRC than I managed.

LittleMermaidKatie

I am having the exact same problem. I'm wondering if we just put in £62.40 (or one of the other two amounts if you pay higher rate tax), as that would be what you gain from the flat rate rebate (as per Martin's post) for one tax year. Then I was thinking you'd have to do it again for the second year. 
I for one am not finding the process easy at all. I've read the websites over and over again, looked for advice online etc, but still none the wiser. It's making me feel quite stupid. I think you are right that the microsite has been taken down, as this process is not what is described. 

flopsy1973

I claimed this back last year for the 2 years how do I know if I had the relief there is 312 deduction on both my tax calculation ? 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

flopsy1973 said:

I claimed this back last year for the 2 years how do I know if I had the relief there is 312 deduction on both my tax calculation ? 

That's what you would expect to see - the £312 WFH expenses reduce the amount of your earnings which are then liable to tax.

flopsy1973

so it is not a payment as such just a reduction on your earnings liable to tax ? the way i read it was a payment 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

flopsy1973 said:

so it is not a payment as such just a reduction on your earnings liable to tax ? the way i read it was a payment 

Basically yes.  Which in turn can mean you are entitled to a refund of any tax overpaid.

But lots of people claimed as soon as possible and received the benefit by paying a bit less tax each week/month rather than a refund being made by HMRC