Tax Relief for Working from Home for a Few Hours

greenlectern

Hi there, my girlfriend has being furloughed since March 2020, although she has been unfurloughed for the occasional day to go into work. More recently, she has also been unfurloughed for occasional virtual meetings, which have taken place at home. These usually last an hour or two, although one more recently lasted for 3 to 3.5 hours. I was just wondering, I know that you can claim tax relief for a whole year for working from home for even just one day, but would my girlfriend be able to claim tax relief for a whole year for working from home on these sporadic occasions, for only a few hours at a time? Many thanks!

Dazed_and_C0nfused

How much do you expect her P60 to show her taxable earnings will be for the year to 5 April 2021?

unholyangel

Is having virtual meetings part of her main duties of employment? Or is it just something she's doing to keep in touch with her colleagues/manager? 

maxsteam

She can claim tax relief for any additional costs. So, for example, if you found out that the 3 hour zoom meetings put an extra £10 onto your home internet bill, she could claim that £10 as a legitimate expense to deduct from earning before tax. If you have an unlimited internet package or if the bill is unchanged by the work, she could not claim. You certainly can't claim the mortgage.

There's a limit of £6 per week that can be claimed without needing to produce receipts.

My guess is that any additional costs for working from home will be a lot less than normal commuting costs. Personally I would not bother claiming unless there was some significant extra cost.

https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home

greenlectern

Thank you for everyone's responses so far!

Dazed_and_C0nfused, not sure what her taxable earnings this year will be exactly, but she will earn about £30k.

unholyangel, the meetings are part of her usual role. She's just having to do them from home now given the circumstances.

maxsteam, thank you for the information. As you suggest, it's probably not worth claiming for those additional costs. However, she used to walk to work, so it is more expensive for her to be working from home.

What I'm wondering is, since Martin Lewis says that if you are working at home for even a day you can claim tax relief (https:/blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2020/04/martin-lewis--working-from-home-due-to-coronavirus--claim-p6-wk-/), does my girlfriend qualify since she has worked for more than a day cumulatively (albeit that work has been spread over multiple days)?

laticsforlife

The Government relaxed the rules for the 2020/2021 year (only) - so long as a person has WFH at least 1 day in the year, they can claim the full year allowance of £6 per week, or £312 on her tax code, equal to cash in her hand of £62.40 (every little helps).

No records need to be kept nor to prove that extra costs have been incurred, but it's a one-off for 2020/2021.
The website is very quick and easy to make the claim so long as you already have a Gateway ID (if not then it's not quite so quick and easy).  You don't have to work it out etc, it's all done for you after answering a few simple questions.

And I'd say that yes your girlfriend definitely qualifies, she has WFH for several days, it hardly matters that on those days it wasn't 8 hours, not her fault that.

'is it worth claiming' - Why are you here? For 5 minutes work, someone is willing to hand you £60 in crisp banknotes in your hand, are you going to say no?

greenlectern

Thanks for your help laticsforlife! She will put in a claim.