Write off tax home improvement for home office

hales8181

During Covid I have been asked by my employer to work from home for the foreseeable future, and I have claimed the standard tax back for this on my most recent self assessment.  

In the last few weeks the company where we rent our office from have gone bust, so we now have no office to work in, even if we wanted to.  It is likely (although not confirmed),that working from home will be a permanent arrangement.  

I do not currently have a dedicated office space, but wondered if I paid to have my loft insulated and boarded out for the purpose of using it as a home office, could I write this off my tax bill as I will only be using this office space for the purpose of work? 

Jeremy535897

Unfortunately not. It is expenditure that puts you in a position to do your job, and not allowable. Even if this was not the case, that sort of cost does not normally qualify for tax relief.

hales8181

But if I were to go and hire an office for the purpose of working in, this does qualify for tax relief?

Jeremy535897

The expenses have to be incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily for the purposes of your job, which means your employer has to require you to work from premises it does not provide (you seem to meet this), but also you can't realistically do your job from home. That is likely to be your problem. Any commuting costs would not be able to be claimed either.

p00hsticks

hales8181 said:

But if I were to go and hire an office for the purpose of working in, this does qualify for tax relief?

If you are employed (which it sounds as if you are) then your employer should be paying any costs they believe are necessary for you to do your job, not you.

unholyangel

hales8181 said:

But if I were to go and hire an office for the purpose of working in, this does qualify for tax relief?

No, as an employee it essentially has to be an expense that anyone performing the duties of employment would need to incur. In other words, if it is a necessary expense, there will be no choice over whether to incur it.

And as per Jeremy's previous post, it needs to be incurred performing the duties, rather than incurred to put you into a position of being able to perform your duties. 

hales8181

Whilst not exactly clear, I think that puts me in a position where either I continue to work in a communal room in my house or pay myself to have my loft insulated and boarded out so I have an actual dedicated room. 

Thanks for clarifying!

Jeremy535897

hales8181 said:

Whilst not exactly clear, I think that puts me in a position where either I continue to work in a communal room in my house or pay myself to have my loft insulated and boarded out so I have an actual dedicated room. 

Thanks for clarifying!

Yes, unless you can twist your employer's arm.

kuratowski

If working from home has become permanent now might be a good time to consider moving house to a room with a suitable office?  Maybe one with natural daylight.  I'm not sure I would fancy working in an unconverted loft!