Working from home tax relief - office equipment purchases?

Andy_L

MrsStepford said:

Husband is getting the £6 pw but although we bought him office chair and L shaped desk, he didn't claim for them from company as he was worried he would get taxed on them at 40%. 

So instead of, maybe, paying 40% of their cost he's paying 100%. Not very MSE

Grumpy_chap

Andy_L said:

MrsStepford said:

Husband is getting the £6 pw but although we bought him office chair and L shaped desk, he didn't claim for them from company as he was worried he would get taxed on them at 40%. 

So instead of, maybe, paying 40% of their cost he's paying 100%. Not very MSE

I was going to say that.
PLUS, it usually works that if expenses are reimbursed by the company then the "wholly, exclusively and necessary" part of the qualifying expenses assessment is satisfied.  Of course, if he left the company, then the furniture would be company assets and may need to be returned.

Jeremy535897

Andy_L said:

MrsStepford said:

Husband is getting the £6 pw but although we bought him office chair and L shaped desk, he didn't claim for them from company as he was worried he would get taxed on them at 40%. 

So instead of, maybe, paying 40% of their cost he's paying 100%. Not very MSE

Grumpy_chap said:

Andy_L said:

MrsStepford said:

Husband is getting the £6 pw but although we bought him office chair and L shaped desk, he didn't claim for them from company as he was worried he would get taxed on them at 40%. 

So instead of, maybe, paying 40% of their cost he's paying 100%. Not very MSE

I was going to say that.
PLUS, it usually works that if expenses are reimbursed by the company then the "wholly, exclusively and necessary" part of the qualifying expenses assessment is satisfied.  Of course, if he left the company, then the furniture would be company assets and may need to be returned.

I thought about pointing out the obvious, but as Grumpy Chap has alluded to, it's not quite that simple. Most employers providing a chair will still own it, so that is one reason why buying it yourself is not comparable (although second hand office chairs don't do that well on Ebay). But in addition, if you only have the use of the chair, rather than ownership of it, there is quite a different benefit charge. I would add that if the employer provided it and said the employee needed it to do the job, there is a good chance of avoiding the benefit altogether.

Filo25

I just put everything through my self assessment (monitor, keyboard, mouse and office chair) work wasn't going to pay for anything as they were hard hit by COVID, and made it clear that anything we incurred for work purposes should just be put through our tax return.

HMRC paid the refund pretty quickly

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Filo25 said:

I just put everything through my self assessment (monitor, keyboard, mouse and office chair) work wasn't going to pay for anything as they were hard hit by COVID, and made it clear that anything we incurred for work purposes should just be put through our tax return.

HMRC paid the refund pretty quickly

And have a period of time to investigate your return of they so wish.

They may not investigate it but getting a refund from filing the return doesn't mean HMRC will accept your claim if they decide to ask questions at a later date.

Filo25

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Filo25 said:

I just put everything through my self assessment (monitor, keyboard, mouse and office chair) work wasn't going to pay for anything as they were hard hit by COVID, and made it clear that anything we incurred for work purposes should just be put through our tax return.

HMRC paid the refund pretty quickly

And have a period of time to investigate your return of they so wish.

They may not investigate it but getting a refund from filing the return doesn't mean HMRC will accept your claim if they decide to ask questions at a later date.

And they are more than welcome to do so, it is all fully supported by paperwork

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Filo25 said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Filo25 said:

I just put everything through my self assessment (monitor, keyboard, mouse and office chair) work wasn't going to pay for anything as they were hard hit by COVID, and made it clear that anything we incurred for work purposes should just be put through our tax return.

HMRC paid the refund pretty quickly

And have a period of time to investigate your return of they so wish.

They may not investigate it but getting a refund from filing the return doesn't mean HMRC will accept your claim if they decide to ask questions at a later date.

And they are more than welcome to do so, it is all fully supported by paperwork

Proof of purchase is unlikely to be the reason it is investigated, it is notoriously difficult to prove that the costs were necessarily incurred as part of the duties of your employment.

unholyangel

Filo25 said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Filo25 said:

I just put everything through my self assessment (monitor, keyboard, mouse and office chair) work wasn't going to pay for anything as they were hard hit by COVID, and made it clear that anything we incurred for work purposes should just be put through our tax return.

HMRC paid the refund pretty quickly

And have a period of time to investigate your return of they so wish.

They may not investigate it but getting a refund from filing the return doesn't mean HMRC will accept your claim if they decide to ask questions at a later date.

And they are more than welcome to do so, it is all fully supported by paperwork

As suggested, the test is whether the expense was wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred performing the duties of your employment. 

While it may be an expense you incurred to put you into the position of performing your duties, as it's not incurred performing the duties then it's not an allowable deduction from employment earnings. 

Filo25

Well if challenged I am least willing to try to defend it.
From the HMRC guidance work not paying for the claim merely understandably weakens the case it does not invalidate it.

In our case these kind of expenses were the least of our worries we were all moved onto pay reductions, the option was either take that or get your statutory redundancy, not blaming my employer we had basically no revenue in our sector for a year, the company was in survival mode and they had no interest in paying for any work expenses for the same reason. If I end up being challenged I will go to HR and they can help out with crafting a response as they advised the claim in the first place.

unholyangel

Filo25 said:

Well if challenged I am least willing to try to defend it.
From the HMRC guidance work not paying for the claim merely understandably weakens the case it does not invalidate it.

In our case these kind of expenses were the least of our worries we were all moved onto pay reductions, the option was either take that or get your statutory redundancy, not blaming my employer we had basically no revenue in our sector for a year, the company was in survival mode and they had no interest in paying for any work expenses for the same reason. If I end up being challenged I will go to HR and they can help out with crafting a response as they advised the claim in the first place.

Have a read of EIM31650 and EIM31647.