Claiming working from home - sole trader and employee

Eassenav

Apologies if this has been covered but I just wanted to make sure I am entitled to claim before I finish my self assessment.
In 2019/20 tax year I was an employee taxed through PAYE and I also submit a self assessment for my ecommerce business that I run from home as a sole trader.

In February 2020 I had to work from home as my employer closed our office (before Coronavirus became a major issue) as we were going to have our office refurbished - obviously from the 23rd March we have had to work from home due to lockdown.

As part of my sole trader business I claim the standard £10 per month (based on my turnover) for expenses incurred for running my business from my house.
My question is can I claim working from home expenses for my PAYE paid job and my sole trader business?  They are independent of each other and the sole trader business is done outside of the hours I work for my employer.

Any guidance on this would be much appreciated.

Jeremy535897

I think the basic issue is to avoid claiming for the same thing twice. Firstly, the flat rate you talk about is based on hours per month rather than turnover. If you put the hours into self employment that you put into your employment, your rate might go up to £18 or even £26 a month (you would only have to work 101 hours a month)? So if your rate would go up by £16 a month, claiming an extra £6 a week is similar. The £6 a week, like the £10 a month, is really designed to cover heating and other household running costs, and by definition you ought to be doing your self employed work outside your employment hours (as you say), so incurring more heating etc. Finally, for 2019/20 alone, you only have to be obliged to work from home under your contract for just one day to claim the £6 for all 52 weeks (assuming you are employed throughout). So on balance I don't see why you shouldn't claim both, but you cannot boost the monthly self employment rate by using hours spent on your employment. That would be double counting.

Grumpy_chap

Jeremy535897 said:

Finally, for 2019/20 alone, you only have to be obliged to work from home under your contract for just one day to claim the £6 for all 52 weeks (assuming you are employed throughout). 

Is that for the previous tax year (2019/20) or the current tax year (2020/21)?  
I understood the latter.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Grumpy_chap said:

Jeremy535897 said:

Finally, for 2019/20 alone, you only have to be obliged to work from home under your contract for just one day to claim the £6 for all 52 weeks (assuming you are employed throughout). 

Is that for the previous tax year (2019/20) or the current tax year (2020/21)?  
I understood the latter.

I think that is the idea - that that applies to 2020:21, not 2019:20 - but there have been a few posters on Martin Lewis' blog about this who seemed to have said they were WFH from sometime in March 2020 and had small adjustments for that year without any hassle.

Maybe a small number of weeks (4-5?) are allowed without it raising flags to HMRC?

Jeremy535897

Grumpy_chap said:

Jeremy535897 said:

Finally, for 2019/20 alone, you only have to be obliged to work from home under your contract for just one day to claim the £6 for all 52 weeks (assuming you are employed throughout). 

Is that for the previous tax year (2019/20) or the current tax year (2020/21)?  
I understood the latter.

Yes, 2020/21, mistype by me.

Eassenav

Thank you for your replies, they are really helpful.

Yes, I am referring to 2019/20 and the self employment is done at different hours to my employed work.
I work approximately 15 hours self employment work and 40 hours employed.  For the tax year 2019/20 I am claiming for February, March and April (until 5th April), for self employment I am claiming 48 weeks (I take a week off in the summer and a week off at Christmas), but perhaps I should also take another week off it for those weeks I might dip below 15 hours (although some weeks I will work nearer 20-25).

The flat rates for self employment working from home expenses are:

Hours of business use per month	Flat rate per month
25 to 50	£10
51 to 100	£18
101 and more	£26

Jeremy535897

For employment, the allowance for 2019/20 was £4 a week for weeks required to work at home.

Eassenav

Yes sorry I should have included that, the rates I quoted were just for the self employment element.  So I would claim the £4 per week for Feb - April 5th 2020 when I had to work from home as my employer's office was closed to staff - the self employment rate would only be claimed for the whole year (less 2 weeks when I don't so any self employment work).

One extra question:  My OH has in his employment contract that his workplace is home, he works in a separate room within our house and keeps more or less the same hours as me, is he entitled to claim the employed working from home allowance (he is a 40% tax payer, I am a 20% tax payer)?  

When it was just me working from home in theory I could just heat the room I am working from, but now we have to heat at least 2 rooms.

Thank you for your help with this.

Jeremy535897

His rate of tax is only relevant to the amount of tax relief. He should be able to make the same claim (£4 a week for 2019/20, £6 a week for 2020/21).

Eassenav

thanks for confirming that - I just mentioned it in case only one of could claim.
Sounds as a household we have 3 claims for 3 employments (2 employed and 1 self employed).
Thank you for your help with this, it is much appreciated.