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

Boycie320

So if you are a PAYE employee working from home and your employer won't pay the £6 per week expenses you can calim tax relief on the £6 (£1.20) from HMRC by completing a Form P87. You can claim now up to 5 April 2020 (19/20 tax year) which would be approximately 3 weeks @ £6 which is tax relief on £18 x 20% = £3.60. If you complete an annual Self Assessment tax return form you complete the section for expenses related to your employment. For the current tax year (20/21) do not submit the P87 until you return to work as you have no way of knowing how many weeks the £6 will apply for in this tax year and then your tax code will be amended to include the tax relief due which will be spread over the tax year or wait until the end of the tax year for a lump sum repayment. If you are working from home for the whole tax year the repayment due will be £6 x 52 = £312 x 20% = £62.40.

katthecat

My employer has said that I am not eligible as I am saving petrol costs. Is this relevant?

TheBanker

Does anyone know what happens for part time homeworking? It is almost certain that in the future we will be required to work x days in the office and x days at home (the suggestion at the moment is one day per fortnight in the office). So can we continue to claim this, maybe on a pro-rata basis?

glider3560

TheBanker said:

Does anyone know what happens for part time homeworking? It is almost certain that in the future we will be required to work x days in the office and x days at home (the suggestion at the moment is one day per fortnight in the office). So can we continue to claim this, maybe on a pro-rata basis?

Depends on where your contract states your place of work is.  If it is the office, you can't claim anything.  If it is home, then you can claim the full amount.

anniecave

glider3560 said:

TheBanker said:

Does anyone know what happens for part time homeworking? It is almost certain that in the future we will be required to work x days in the office and x days at home (the suggestion at the moment is one day per fortnight in the office). So can we continue to claim this, maybe on a pro-rata basis?

Depends on where your contract states your place of work is.  If it is the office, you can't claim anything.  If it is home, then you can claim the full amount.

I think Glider3560 meant to put the opposite of what they did.
ATT website in this article:  https://www.att.org.uk/home-sweet-home-%E2%80%93-tax-relief-home-working says it doesn't matter if compulsory working from home is only part time, the tax relief would still be payable.

anniecave

katthecat said:

My employer has said that I am not eligible as I am saving petrol costs. Is this relevant?

It's your employer's choice whether they want to pay you an allowance or not, so that's relevant to your employer.
If they don't pay you the allowance, you can however still chose to claim tax relief on the amount via your tax return or P87 form. 
The two are different.

electraglide

I tried to fill in the printable form today and there is no mention of working from home/using your home as an office either in the sidebar menu or the form itself. The option in Martin's screenshot has gone

Jekm66

How does work with a gradual return to being full time in the office? We've been told we'll initially rotate being back 2 days/week to ensure we can work safely. 

tkdally

Does anyone know if HMRC will contact your employer re your claim? I left my previous employer on bad terms and I don't want to stir things up.

I have P60s from that employer that covers the period I want to claim for and an employee contract that says my normal place of work is home. I worked at home for 8 years and never claimed anything so I would like to claim back to 5 April 2016 which is the earliest you back you can go on the P87.

Fletchasketch

Has anyone heard back from HMRC on this yet? I sent in my claim for 2019/20 on 22nd April. It's showing as 'processed' on the government portal but I definitely haven't heard anything from them or had any refund.