Home working - Now Boris wants us to work from home can I claim £6pw?

Face

Hi,

Now that Boris has asked office workers to work from home if they can (which I can and am!) can I now claim the £6 per week tax allowance to cover electric/gas costs?

On the gov.uk website it says that you can only claim this if you have to work from home and not if you choose to - does Boris' instruction constitute "have to" now?

Many thanks

Face

bradders1983

You could if you were working from home even before yesterday but bear in mind  if your employer refuses to pay it (which most will) its a self claim and its not an extra £6 per week in your hand, its £6 a week tax relief, so in essence its an extra £1.20pw for most people.  I have decided that amount isnt worth the bother

Caz3121

this was covered in MSE blog here - https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2020/04/martin-lewis--working-from-home-due-to-coronavirus--claim-p6-wk-/

unholyangel

Martin said in his blog HMRC had said they'd consider claims where people are working from home due to covid. 

But they consider every claim they receive anyway, not just the allowable ones. 

I know at the start (mar-may) they had asked some people to provide a copy of their contract of employment. But whether that's because they're applying normal rules to covid claims or because they hadn't had time to change their procedures, I don't know. 

oldbikebloke

in other words, HMRC have not yet confirmed in writing that a Govt "instruction" to work at home supersedes the law as it stands at the moment, whereby the claim can be made only if a (written) contract of employment requires working at home, not just that you agree with your employer to do so.

Jeremy535897

Reasonable reimbursements (up to £6 a week being automatically regarded without evidence as reasonable) by the employer for homeworking arrangements are exempted by section 316A ITEPA 2003, which provides:

"316A Homeworker’s additional household expenses

(1)This section applies where an employer makes a payment to an employee in respect of reasonable additional household expenses which the employee incurs in carrying out duties of the employment at home under homeworking arrangements.

(2)No liability to income tax arises in respect of the payment.

(3)In this section, in relation to an employee—

• “homeworking arrangements” means arrangements between the employee and the employer under which the employee regularly performs some or all of the duties of the employment at home; and

• “household expenses” means expenses connected with the day to day running of the employee’s home."

For a claim by an employee, the stricter test in section 336 ITEPA 2003 applies, and the "necessarily" test means the employer must require it, and for a good reason (usually because the work can only be done from the employee's home, or the employer is based an unreasonable distance from the employee's home to commute to):

"336 Deductions for expenses: the general rule

(1)The general rule is that a deduction from earnings is allowed for an amount if—

(a)the employee is obliged to incur and pay it as holder of the employment, and

(b)the amount is incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the performance of the duties of the employment.

(2)The following provisions of this Chapter contain additional rules allowing deductions for particular kinds of expenses and rules preventing particular kinds of deductions.

(3)No deduction is allowed under this section for an amount that is deductible under sections 337 to 342 (travel expenses)."

EIM 32830 explains in more detail:

"Other expenses: home: household expenses: relation between deduction for employee’s expenses and exempt homeworking payments: examples

Sections 316A and 336 ITEPA 2003

Example 1

An employer introduces a homeworking policy under which employees who wish to work from home may do so. The employer makes a payment of £6 per week towards the additional household expenses of those employees who decide to work from home. The £6 per week is exempt from tax under section 316A ITEPA 2003 (see EIM01472 onwards). However, employees who can show that working from home costs them more than £6 per week are not able to obtain a deduction for the excess under section 336 because they are working at home by choice. The conditions for relief under section 336 are more restrictive than the conditions for exempt payments under section 316A.

Example 2

The North of England representative of a company whose only offices are in London is entitled to a deduction under section 336 ITEPA 2003 for the expenses of working at home. He produces evidence that his additional household expenses, allowable under section 336, amount to £6 per week. However, his employer makes a contribution of £5 per week towards those expenses. That contribution is exempt from tax under section 316A. The amount the employee is able to deduct under section 336 is therefore £1 per week, being the difference between his allowable, additional expenditure of £6 per week and his employer’s reimbursement of £5 per week."

There isn't anything that says that a recommendation by government to work from home if possible supersedes the above requirements.