Work from home tax relief if employer reimbursed cost for setting up home office

kaboo

Hi everyone,
A little bit confusion regarding work from home tax relief. My wife has been working from home since the start of the pandemic. She works at a university in one of the support (non academic) departments and was asked to work from home by the employer. BAck in the summer of 2020 when this all started, her employer had reimbursed the cost of setting a home office - basically cost of a computer desk and a chair. Can she still claim work from home tax benefit? For both years 2020-21 and 2021-22? 

HMRC website says that to claim work from home tax benefit you must not be receiving expenses directly from your employer to cover the extra costs of working from home. But the support my wife got was not for ongoing expenses but to only one time to set up a home office. And I think the chair and desk belong to the Uni, i.e. she was told that when she stops working or returns to work onsite the furniture goes back to the Uni! So I think she is eligible for tax relief but just wanted to be sure!

Thanks in advance

Jeremy535897

The chair and the desk have no bearing on the WFH claim. If they belong to the university, it is unlikely that there are any tax issues arising from their provision.

kaboo

Jeremy535897 said:

The chair and the desk have no bearing on the WFH claim. If they belong to the university, it is unlikely that there are any tax issues arising from their provision.

Thanks. But should we verify that they belong to the Uni or not? It was mentioned by wife's manager but perhaps need to be verified by their Finance department. But we will do that only if it is necessary. As in even if the furniture doesnt belong to the Uni, can we still claim Working From Home tax relief?

lisyloo

The tax relief is to help with costs of being at home - like gas, electric, water, phone.
its not related at all to the furniture.
the expenses that Hmrc are referring to relate to when employers give money to help cover the bills.
so you don’t need to worry about the furniture/office set up.

Jeremy535897

lisyloo said:

The tax relief is to help with costs of being at home - like gas, electric, water, phone.
its not related at all to the furniture.
the expenses that Hmrc are referring to relate to when employers give money to help cover the bills.
so you don’t need to worry about the furniture/office set up.

The tax issue on the furniture is that if the university bought it and gave it to OP's wife, that might be regarded as a benefit in kind, as such expenses would not normally be able to be claimed if the employee bought them.

lisyloo

Jeremy535897 said:

lisyloo said:

The tax relief is to help with costs of being at home - like gas, electric, water, phone.
its not related at all to the furniture.
the expenses that Hmrc are referring to relate to when employers give money to help cover the bills.
so you don’t need to worry about the furniture/office set up.

The tax issue on the furniture is that if the university bought it and gave it to OP's wife, that might be regarded as a benefit in kind, as such expenses would not normally be able to be claimed if the employee bought them.

Ok, maybe but that’s an entirely separate matter to the benefit for elec/gas/phone/water costs.

personally if a paye employee then I would expect benefits in kind to be added onto p11.
I would personally not expect items exclusively for work to be regarded as a “benefit”.

Jeremy535897

lisyloo said:

Jeremy535897 said:

lisyloo said:

The tax relief is to help with costs of being at home - like gas, electric, water, phone.
its not related at all to the furniture.
the expenses that Hmrc are referring to relate to when employers give money to help cover the bills.
so you don’t need to worry about the furniture/office set up.

The tax issue on the furniture is that if the university bought it and gave it to OP's wife, that might be regarded as a benefit in kind, as such expenses would not normally be able to be claimed if the employee bought them.

Ok, maybe but that’s an entirely separate matter to the benefit for elec/gas/phone/water costs.

personally if a paye employee then I would expect benefits in kind to be added onto p11.
I would personally not expect items exclusively for work to be regarded as a “benefit”.

I made the point as OP asked "should we verify that they belong to the Uni or not?" Asking a valid question for the wrong reason still requires a response.

The basic rules on claiming expenses as an employee are that they must be "wholly, exclusively and necessarily" for the purpose of performing the duties of the employment. This is a high bar, and the point is that this sort of expense is normally excluded on the grounds that it is putting you in the position of being able to perform the duties of your employment. The rules are different where the employer retains ownership of the items concerned.

kaboo

thank you