Work from Home - Help with Self Assessment for Expenses

Chris89

A bit of background - I work from home, employed by a company so all of my tax is handled through my salary. However, a work colleague told me that I could claim expenses for working from home, as well as expenses for equipment purchased for this purpose (none of which is expensed through the company).
So, with this information and his recommendation, I signed up for Self Assessment for the tax year ending 2019 (to back file), and I received the self assessment  forms through the post in January 2020. The deadline on the front said October for paper assessment (with no year listed), so I stupidly took that to mean October 2020. I had a lot going on with having just moved house, and I promptly forgot about it, until a letter arrived in the post this morning saying I owe a £100 penalty for not filing them!

Now this is my fault for being stupid/naive, though I will probably appeal on the grounds that I was stressed at the time and didn't pay attention to the deadline given that it was to claim tax back, and not to pay additional taxes. However, I still need to file the tax return and I'm struggling to understand the form.

I'm only looking to claim the expenses (£6 per week + purchased items) but I don't see an expenses section? I've never done this before, and it's unclear as I'm not needing to actually pay any taxes as you normally would filling out this form.

Thank you, sorry for the newbie questions!

uknick

Reads this thread to see if it helps

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6162854/work-from-home-self-assessment/p1

I wouldn't hold your breath on the appeal if that's your defence.

dctrgre

If you registered for SA in January 2020 the deadline for the 18/19 return should have been 3 months after registration. This should have been shown on the return issued to you. (Obviously if you had an April deadline you are still late to
file.)

If completing the return you include the expenses on the employment pages, which may not have been sent to you.

Depending on the amounts involved your best bet may be to ask HMRC to withdraw the return (which would cancel the penalties) and submit a P87, which you can do within 4 years of the end of the tax year.