Working from home tax relief

Magice2648

Hi there, 
I am a field service engineer for a photocopier company. 
Although predominantly working out at customers sites, my home is classed as my office (which allows me to claim business miles to and from my house) and as such there is a certain amount of work I undertake at home.

I have to charge my company laptops and phone every night as well as pick up my calls for the day in the morning and close down calls when I get home in the evening. As well as the occasional online training that I do. 

I put a claim in for working from home tax relief and it was rejected, does anyone think this is worth appealing? Do I do enough at home to class as a home office?

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

comeandgo

You would be regarded as a mobile worker, you start from home and travel to your clients. I don't think there is any taxable help for mobile workers.

oldbikebloke

what reason did "they" give for rejecting the claim and how much did you claim? We ain't mind readers.

no idea what a "mobile worker" is? In my view your contract of employment requires you to work "from" home, you have no other permanent place of employment, so you should be entitled to use of home.

Magice2648

oldbikebloke said:

what reason did "they" give for rejecting the claim and how much did you claim? We ain't mind readers.

no idea what a "mobile worker" is? In my view your contract of employment requires you to work "from" home, you have no other permanent place of employment, so you should be entitled to use of home.

They just listed the criteria in a letter:
One that each and every employee would have to incur in that employment
Necessary for you to incur the expense
Incurred and paid
Incurred wholy and exclusively as part of the duties of the employment. 

Then said that my claim did not meet all of the above conditions. 

I claimed the maximum amount that I believed could be claimed without having to evidence it, which is £4 per week x 52.

zagfles

See https://taxaid.org.uk/guides/information/issues-for-employees/employee-expenses/homeworking-rules-and-expenses

You'll probably be classed as an "occassional" home worker, I've been one for years, I'm only starting claiming now since being forced to work at home full time. The cost of charging a laptop & phone is likely to be under 5p.

unholyangel

I think this page might explain their rejection:
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim32760

Particularly:

 HMRC accept that those conditions are met where the following circumstances apply:
 

• the duties that the employee performs at home are substantive duties of the employment. “Substantive duties” are duties that an employee has to carry out and that represent all or part of the central duties of the employment (see EIM32780)

• those duties cannot be performed without the use of appropriate facilities

• no such appropriate facilities are available to the employee on the employer’s premises (or the nature of the job requires the employee to live so far from the employer’s premises that it is unreasonable to expect him or her to travel to those premises on a daily basis)

• at no time either before or after the employment contract is drawn up is the employee able to choose between working at the employer’s premises or elsewhere.

  
  

InMyDreams

They just listed the criteria in a letter:

One that each and every employee would have to incur in that employment
Necessary for you to incur the expense
Incurred and paid
Incurred wholy and exclusively as part of the duties of the employment. 

Then said that my claim did not meet all of the above conditions. 

I claimed the maximum amount that I believed could be claimed without having to evidence it, which is £4 per week x 52.

Who is ‘they’ who have rejected you? What have you tried to claim and from whom? This sounds like it might be an employer’s reason for rejecting a £4/week expense claim rather than HMRC rejecting the tax relief.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

InMyDreams said:

They just listed the criteria in a letter:

One that each and every employee would have to incur in that employment
Necessary for you to incur the expense
Incurred and paid
Incurred wholy and exclusively as part of the duties of the employment. 

Then said that my claim did not meet all of the above conditions. 

I claimed the maximum amount that I believed could be claimed without having to evidence it, which is £4 per week x 52.

Who is ‘they’ who have rejected you? What have you tried to claim and from whom? This sounds like it might be an employer’s reason for rejecting a £4/week expense claim rather than HMRC rejecting the tax relief.

As the op referred to "tax relief" it is assumed HMRC refused the claim 

InMyDreams

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

As the op referred to "tax relief" it is assumed HMRC refused the claim 

Indeed. I was just wondering if that was a safe assumption, given how confused people often are by what tax relief actually means.

Magice2648

Apologies, it is indeed HMRC that have rejected the claim. I claimed the maximum amount I was told I could claim without having to provide documentation to justify it (£4 per week x 52).