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working from Home

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My son lives with me and works at a Welsh University  . He has been set up with various Computers to work from my home and has done so for many months during the COVID period. Am I able to claim tax relief or any relief from the university for the very substantial  Electricity used and paid for by myself.

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  • biscan25
    biscan25 Posts: 452 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    He can claim £6/week relief for the tax years 2020/21 and 2021/22.
    You'll have to claim the electricity cost back from him I'm afraid!
    Pensions actuary, Runner, Dog parent, Homeowner
  • Marcon
    Marcon Posts: 14,225 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    jevs2 said:
    My son lives with me and works at a Welsh University  . He has been set up with various Computers to work from my home and has done so for many months during the COVID period. Am I able to claim tax relief or any relief from the university for the very substantial  Electricity used and paid for by myself.
    No - any claim would need to be made from your son. Whether he can claim from the university is between him and his employer.
    Googling on your question might have been both quicker and easier, if you're only after simple facts rather than opinions!  
  • Sandtree
    Sandtree Posts: 10,628 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    jevs2 said:
    My son lives with me and works at a Welsh University  . He has been set up with various Computers to work from my home and has done so for many months during the COVID period. Am I able to claim tax relief or any relief from the university for the very substantial  Electricity used and paid for by myself.
    I'd question how he's managing to get very substantial power consumption from a work computer? Average person has 1 laptop at around 50w meaning a long 10 hour day uses 0.5 kWh or about 15p even in todays rates. Adding a monitor bumps it to under 25p per day.

    £5/month isn't nothing but struggle to see how its "very substantial" and presumably just falls under your general relationship with your son and what contributions he makes to living at home. 
  • Undervalued
    Undervalued Posts: 9,539 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    As above plus....

    If your son has been running an electric heater all working hours in a room that would otherwise be unheated then that would give a "very substantial" rise in your electric bill. Obviously computers use some power but very modest by comparison. The £6 a week mentioned is reasonable excluding heating an otherwise unheated room.

    Equally, but often forgotten, how much did he save in commuting costs?
  • 74jax
    74jax Posts: 7,930 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    How substantial?
    My husband has worked from home since March 2020 and works for a worldwide games company, so runs several monitors and 2 computers all day every day. Heating costs have gone down as the study now heats all of upstairs and we have next to no increase in electricity.
    For it to be 'substantial' have you checked you don't have a fault somewhere? 
    Forty and fabulous, well that's what my cards say....
  • TELLIT01
    TELLIT01 Posts: 17,929 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper PPI Party Pooper
    Your son should be contributing to the additional costs from the savings made by not commuting every day.
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