Work From Home tax relief

mathewbarrett

I posted this in the Benefits & Tax Credits forum, but someone there suggested it belongs here, so...

Bit of a unique situation that I can't find an answer to through forum searches:  I worked from home from March 2020 through September 2021, during which time I received a monthly flat payment from my employer for expenses.  I returned to the workplace in September 2021, but soon had to isolate which caused me to work from home for almost two straight weeks.

Now, I understand that even if you have to work from home for one day you can claim tax relief for the entire year.  However, what do you do when your employer has already paid part of that relief?  When I go through the form on the HMRC microsite I get to the point where it asks "Do you want to claim tax relief on expenses from using your home as an office?"  I tick "yes" and then it asks for amount paid by me and amount paid by my employer.  Well, I can easily calculate how much my employer paid me for working at home, but how do I calculate the amount paid by me?  Am I supposed to multiply £6 by the number of weeks in the tax year that I WASN'T paid the monthly amount from my employer?

Jeremy535897

You can either claim £6 a week so long as you were obliged to work from home at some time during the year, or claim the actual allowable expenses you incurred for the periods you were obliged to work from home. In both cases you must reduce your claim by the amount paid by your employer, so if that exceeded £312 in the year, you could not claim for the £6 a week.

mathewbarrett

Jeremy535897 said:

You can either claim £6 a week so long as you were obliged to work from home at some time during the year, or claim the actual allowable expenses you incurred for the periods you were obliged to work from home. In both cases you must reduce your claim by the amount paid by your employer, so if that exceeded £312 in the year, you could not claim for the £6 a week.

Thanks for your reply.  So am I understanding properly that I should claim £6 per week for the whole year less what my employer paid from April to September?  So claim £156?

Jeremy535897

If your employer happened to pay £156 in the tax year, yes. If they paid £312 or more, I don't think you can claim anything. For example, they might have paid £500 for April to September. That doesn't mean you can claim another £156.

tonyeccles

Can my daughter ask her employer to claim this relief on her behalf? thank you

Dazed_and_C0nfused

tonyeccles said:

Can my daughter ask her employer to claim this relief on her behalf? thank you

She can ask them anything but they will likely say it's not their role to do that.

If she's WFH due to Covid-19 she could do it herself quicker by logging into her Personal Tax Account