WfH tax relief for 2022/23?

Jeremy535897

If you believe that you meet the criteria for claiming, and have put together a reasonable argument to support it, then claim. HMRC might reject your claim, and you can argue that with them in due course.

snowqueen555

Anyone claiming this tax year?

I only go in 2 days a month now, they have cut our office space in half and it looks permanent.

biscan25

I still claim. I phoned HMRC to check I am still eligible amongst some other things. They agreed that as my contract is home-based, and the "office" is several hundred miles away it would be reasonable to conclude that I am effectively required to WFH. My contract expires next week though, and I have to go back to real life so I will stop claiming then.

Your situation is a real grey area. Lots (most?) of London office based workers are in the same boat, i.e. they are required to work from home some of the week, as the office would have insufficient capacity if everyone showed up. Although this definitely meets the criteria for claiming, I'm not sure if this can be done through the flat rate allowance or has to be done the traditional way.

Jeremy535897

biscan25 said:

I still claim. I phoned HMRC to check I am still eligible amongst some other things. They agreed that as my contract is home-based, and the "office" is several hundred miles away it would be reasonable to conclude that I am effectively required to WFH. My contract expires next week though, and I have to go back to real life so I will stop claiming then.

Your situation is a real grey area. Lots (most?) of London office based workers are in the same boat, i.e. they are required to work from home some of the week, as the office would have insufficient capacity if everyone showed up. Although this definitely meets the criteria for claiming, I'm not sure if this can be done through the flat rate allowance or has to be done the traditional way.

If you look at example 12, you may be able to claim WFH for all of 2022/23. See:
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim32790

If you manage to clear the hurdles to get a deduction for WFH when you work at home say 2 days a week, you can still claim the full £6 a week. But HMRC resist claims where the employee can choose whether to work at home or in the office, even if the office could not house every employee if they turned up (this is hot desking, and has existed for decades).

UP28

Hi just asking, with the Level 4 Severe Weather warning and the advice to work from home. Does this mean people can now claim for this year (2022/23)?

Jeremy535897

It is just advice, rather than being obligatory. So I suspect the answer is no.

Grumpy_chap

UP28 said:

Hi just asking, with the Level 4 Severe Weather warning and the advice to work from home. Does this mean people can now claim for this year (2022/23)?

It is not clear that this weather event qualifies as a reason to WFH eligible for the tax relief but, even if it were, I understand that the COVID waiver (WFH 1 day, claim whole year) is no longer in place.  So, assuming the extreme heat WFH is only for 2 days as per current forecast, you could only claim WFH tax relief for one week because of this event.  For a basic rate tax payer, that is 20% of £6 = £1.20.

Jeremy535897

Grumpy_chap said:

UP28 said:

Hi just asking, with the Level 4 Severe Weather warning and the advice to work from home. Does this mean people can now claim for this year (2022/23)?

It is not clear that this weather event qualifies as a reason to WFH eligible for the tax relief but, even if it were, I understand that the COVID waiver (WFH 1 day, claim whole year) is no longer in place.  So, assuming the extreme heat WFH is only for 2 days as per current forecast, you could only claim WFH tax relief for one week because of this event.  For a basic rate tax payer, that is 20% of £6 = £1.20.

No, it remains in place for 2022/23. See final paragraph of:
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim32790

The advice is too general anyway. Your office may be air conditioned, and your home may be a flat with no ventilation. It would be absurd to work from home in such circumstances.

Grumpy_chap

Jeremy535897 said:

No, it remains in place for 2022/23. See final paragraph of:
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim32790

Thank you for correcting my misunderstanding.