Working from home - tax relief?

Deva2005

Hi all

Happy New Year!

I have been working from home since 2019, my two previous contracts had stated my place of work as home, my current one doesn't, but as the office is over 50 miles away, the company 'allows' me to work from home. They provide me a PC and mobile phone only.
I have to use my own broadband and as they now want me to use  VOIP phone, this will take more bandwidth, I assume?

My question is this - I know HMRC give a basic  £6 per month allowance WFH,  but I have read elsewhere that I can claim  percentage of my rent, council tax, heat/light, broadband etc

I wonder if anyone has experience in this and could advise me in the options / ways to approach HMRC to claim any estra allowance I cN fir the past few years.

Many thanks in advance 

David

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Do you currently complete Self Assessment returns?

Deva2005

No, I never have done, I really don't know about these or what is involved

unforeseen

the company 'allows' me to work from home. 

As this is your choice then you can not claim

Bowey123

Look at HMRC guidance entitled.  “Claim tax relief for your job expenses”. 
I am new so I cannot post links.  But if you google that title and HMRC you should land on the right page

Jeremy535897

See https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim32790

DullGreyGuy

david.richards27 said:

Hi all

Happy New Year!

I have been working from home since 2019, my two previous contracts had stated my place of work as home, my current one doesn't, but as the office is over 50 miles away, the company 'allows' me to work from home. They provide me a PC and mobile phone only.
I have to use my own broadband and as they now want me to use  VOIP phone, this will take more bandwidth, I assume?

My question is this - I know HMRC give a basic  £6 per month allowance WFH,  but I have read elsewhere that I can claim  percentage of my rent, council tax, heat/light, broadband etc

I wonder if anyone has experience in this and could advise me in the options / ways to approach HMRC to claim any estra allowance I cN fir the past few years.

Many thanks in advance 

David

Allowance is only if you are forced to work from home rather than being allowed to but equally being allowed to go into the office. 

VOIP uses tiny amount of data... are you really on a data limited package? Almost all broadband is unlimited data and so not consuming any allowance. 

As per https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home you can only claim for things that are exclusively business use and not something thats blended like rent. 

For the self employed there has always been the argument that if you have a dedicated space you could attempt to claim part of your rent/mortgage related to that part of the property as a business expense but its a potential minefield of problems if different entities learn of this... breach of mortgage/rent conditions, liable for business rates, planning permission issues, CGT on the business premises etc

Jeremy535897

DullGreyGuy said:

david.richards27 said:

Hi all

Happy New Year!

I have been working from home since 2019, my two previous contracts had stated my place of work as home, my current one doesn't, but as the office is over 50 miles away, the company 'allows' me to work from home. They provide me a PC and mobile phone only.
I have to use my own broadband and as they now want me to use  VOIP phone, this will take more bandwidth, I assume?

My question is this - I know HMRC give a basic  £6 per month allowance WFH,  but I have read elsewhere that I can claim  percentage of my rent, council tax, heat/light, broadband etc

I wonder if anyone has experience in this and could advise me in the options / ways to approach HMRC to claim any estra allowance I cN fir the past few years.

Many thanks in advance 

David

Allowance is only if you are forced to work from home rather than being allowed to but equally being allowed to go into the office. 

VOIP uses tiny amount of data... are you really on a data limited package? Almost all broadband is unlimited data and so not consuming any allowance. 

As per https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home you can only claim for things that are exclusively business use and not something thats blended like rent. 

For the self employed there has always been the argument that if you have a dedicated space you could attempt to claim part of your rent/mortgage related to that part of the property as a business expense but its a potential minefield of problems if different entities learn of this... breach of mortgage/rent conditions, liable for business rates, planning permission issues, CGT on the business premises etc

Although not relevant to the OP who is an employee, I think you are being a bit overcautious concerning someone doing a bit of self employment from home in a service industry (manufacturing, retail and stock holding are a very different matter).

So far as tax is concerned, if you use a room in the house for business, for say 90% of the time, you can claim an appropriate proportion of the associated costs (like rent, interest, heat, light, etc) or a fixed sum under the simplified expenses rules. You only get a capital gains tax issue if the room is exclusively used for business. All the other issues you mention are there whether you claim expenses or not (and I cannot see entities you describe learning about your claim from HMRC). Most insurance companies don't mind if you work from home in a service industry, although it should be mentioned. You do need to check any covenants that restrict what you can do in your home. Most mortgage companies won't care, and there won't normally be any planning issues or rates issues (the latter would most likely be a benefit not a cost given small business rate relief, as holiday home owners have discovered).