Advice for an NHS worker who has never claimed relief on uniform/wfh/car?

rundmc-k

Any advice would be appreciated with regard to my wife's circumstances. She has worked for the NHS as a dietician for many years, and has never claimed tax relief on anything that she is most likely entitled to, e.g. professional subscriptions like the BDA

My basic understanding is that she can claim a rebate (until tomorrow 5th April) for 5 years which would be back to the 20/21 tax year. For the washing/cleaning of her clinical uniforms I believe she may be able to claim 20% tax relief of £125 per year?

She also has worked from home on average 1-2 days per week during that time, originally due to Covid, but in the last few years due to health related agreed reasonable adjustments. Does anyone know what her options would be for potential tax relief rebates on that?

Finally use of her car... she drives her own car numerous times per week to patient's houses for domiciliary appointments, but she doesn't keep a record of those particular journeys and she has never claimed any mileage from the NHS... should we just forget about that part, or is it worth looking further into claiming for that as well?

Many thanks

Dazed_and_C0nfused

rundmc-k said:

Any advice would be appreciated with regard to my wife's circumstances. She has worked for the NHS as a dietician for many years, and has never claimed tax relief on anything that she is most likely entitled to, e.g. professional subscriptions like the BDA

My basic understanding is that she can claim a rebate (until tomorrow 5th April) for 5 years which would be back to the 20/21 tax year. For the washing/cleaning of her clinical uniforms I believe she may be able to claim 20% tax relief of £125 per year?

She also has worked from home on average 1-2 days per week during that time, originally due to Covid, but in the last few years due to health related agreed reasonable adjustments. Does anyone know what her options would be for potential tax relief rebates on that?

Finally use of her car... she drives her own car numerous times per week to patient's houses for domiciliary appointments, but she doesn't keep a record of those particular journeys and she has never claimed any mileage from the NHS... should we just forget about that part, or is it worth looking further into claiming for that as well?

Many thanks

Have you checked what her current tax code is?

She wouldn't be the first person who had actually claimed for professional subscriptions and flat rate expenses many years ago and subsequently forgot all about it.

If she needs to use her car for business travel then why hasn't she been claiming expenses from her employer?  100% of the expenses they pay is way better than 20% from HMRC.  Although from what you have posted I suspect she is going to struggle with that now HMRC won't documentary evidence of that sort of clam.

rundmc-k

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

rundmc-k said:

Any advice would be appreciated with regard to my wife's circumstances. She has worked for the NHS as a dietician for many years, and has never claimed tax relief on anything that she is most likely entitled to, e.g. professional subscriptions like the BDA

My basic understanding is that she can claim a rebate (until tomorrow 5th April) for 5 years which would be back to the 20/21 tax year. For the washing/cleaning of her clinical uniforms I believe she may be able to claim 20% tax relief of £125 per year?

She also has worked from home on average 1-2 days per week during that time, originally due to Covid, but in the last few years due to health related agreed reasonable adjustments. Does anyone know what her options would be for potential tax relief rebates on that?

Finally use of her car... she drives her own car numerous times per week to patient's houses for domiciliary appointments, but she doesn't keep a record of those particular journeys and she has never claimed any mileage from the NHS... should we just forget about that part, or is it worth looking further into claiming for that as well?

Many thanks

Have you checked what her current tax code is?

She wouldn't be the first person who had actually claimed for professional subscriptions and flat rate expenses many years ago and subsequently forgot all about it.

If she needs to use her car for business travel then why hasn't she been claiming expenses from her employer?  100% of the expenses they pay is way better than 20% from HMRC.  Although from what you have posted I suspect she is going to struggle with that now HMRC won't documentary evidence of that sort of clam.

Upon checking with her, she is insistent that she has never claimed for subscriptions/flat rate expenses, and although I don't know what her tax code is, I can be fairly certain that is correct.

I asked her about the car situ and she said although contractually she has to have a car for her job, she doesn't claim travel expenses as she feels she doesn't cover enough mileage doing domicilliary visits to warrant the time/hassle of documenting and claiming, so I think we can probably reasonably ignore the use of car part.

Any advice on claiming for working from home/subscriptions/uniforms would still be much appreciated though.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

rundmc-k said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

rundmc-k said:

Any advice would be appreciated with regard to my wife's circumstances. She has worked for the NHS as a dietician for many years, and has never claimed tax relief on anything that she is most likely entitled to, e.g. professional subscriptions like the BDA

My basic understanding is that she can claim a rebate (until tomorrow 5th April) for 5 years which would be back to the 20/21 tax year. For the washing/cleaning of her clinical uniforms I believe she may be able to claim 20% tax relief of £125 per year?

She also has worked from home on average 1-2 days per week during that time, originally due to Covid, but in the last few years due to health related agreed reasonable adjustments. Does anyone know what her options would be for potential tax relief rebates on that?

Finally use of her car... she drives her own car numerous times per week to patient's houses for domiciliary appointments, but she doesn't keep a record of those particular journeys and she has never claimed any mileage from the NHS... should we just forget about that part, or is it worth looking further into claiming for that as well?

Many thanks

Have you checked what her current tax code is?

She wouldn't be the first person who had actually claimed for professional subscriptions and flat rate expenses many years ago and subsequently forgot all about it.

If she needs to use her car for business travel then why hasn't she been claiming expenses from her employer?  100% of the expenses they pay is way better than 20% from HMRC.  Although from what you have posted I suspect she is going to struggle with that now HMRC won't documentary evidence of that sort of clam.

Upon checking with her, she is insistent that she has never claimed for subscriptions/flat rate expenses, and although I don't know what her tax code is, I can be fairly certain that is correct.

I asked her about the car situ and she said although contractually she has to have a car for her job, she doesn't claim travel expenses as she feels she doesn't cover enough mileage doing domicilliary visits to warrant the time/hassle of documenting and claiming, so I think we can probably reasonably ignore the use of car part.

Any advice on claiming for working from home/subscriptions/uniforms would still be much appreciated though.

Can't you just look at a recent payslip?

Assuming the claim is for no more than £2,500 in each year then she needs to complete form P87.

It is one P87 per tax year.  Only 2020-21 must be done (online) by tomorrow.

Jeremy535897

If she is a member of a union, there may be specific guidance on their website (there is for RCN).

rundmc-k

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

rundmc-k said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

rundmc-k said:

Any advice would be appreciated with regard to my wife's circumstances. She has worked for the NHS as a dietician for many years, and has never claimed tax relief on anything that she is most likely entitled to, e.g. professional subscriptions like the BDA

My basic understanding is that she can claim a rebate (until tomorrow 5th April) for 5 years which would be back to the 20/21 tax year. For the washing/cleaning of her clinical uniforms I believe she may be able to claim 20% tax relief of £125 per year?

She also has worked from home on average 1-2 days per week during that time, originally due to Covid, but in the last few years due to health related agreed reasonable adjustments. Does anyone know what her options would be for potential tax relief rebates on that?

Finally use of her car... she drives her own car numerous times per week to patient's houses for domiciliary appointments, but she doesn't keep a record of those particular journeys and she has never claimed any mileage from the NHS... should we just forget about that part, or is it worth looking further into claiming for that as well?

Many thanks

Have you checked what her current tax code is?

She wouldn't be the first person who had actually claimed for professional subscriptions and flat rate expenses many years ago and subsequently forgot all about it.

If she needs to use her car for business travel then why hasn't she been claiming expenses from her employer?  100% of the expenses they pay is way better than 20% from HMRC.  Although from what you have posted I suspect she is going to struggle with that now HMRC won't documentary evidence of that sort of clam.

Upon checking with her, she is insistent that she has never claimed for subscriptions/flat rate expenses, and although I don't know what her tax code is, I can be fairly certain that is correct.

I asked her about the car situ and she said although contractually she has to have a car for her job, she doesn't claim travel expenses as she feels she doesn't cover enough mileage doing domicilliary visits to warrant the time/hassle of documenting and claiming, so I think we can probably reasonably ignore the use of car part.

Any advice on claiming for working from home/subscriptions/uniforms would still be much appreciated though.

Can't you just look at a recent payslip?

Assuming the claim is for no more than £2,500 in each year then she needs to complete form P87.

It is one P87 per tax year.  Only 2020-21 must be done (online) by tomorrow.

I will do, but as I am self-employed I have no understanding of tax codes... what exactly would the tax code tell me in relation to these potential expense claims?

TheSpectator

rundmc-k said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

rundmc-k said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

rundmc-k said:

Any advice would be appreciated with regard to my wife's circumstances. She has worked for the NHS as a dietician for many years, and has never claimed tax relief on anything that she is most likely entitled to, e.g. professional subscriptions like the BDA

My basic understanding is that she can claim a rebate (until tomorrow 5th April) for 5 years which would be back to the 20/21 tax year. For the washing/cleaning of her clinical uniforms I believe she may be able to claim 20% tax relief of £125 per year?

She also has worked from home on average 1-2 days per week during that time, originally due to Covid, but in the last few years due to health related agreed reasonable adjustments. Does anyone know what her options would be for potential tax relief rebates on that?

Finally use of her car... she drives her own car numerous times per week to patient's houses for domiciliary appointments, but she doesn't keep a record of those particular journeys and she has never claimed any mileage from the NHS... should we just forget about that part, or is it worth looking further into claiming for that as well?

Many thanks

Have you checked what her current tax code is?

She wouldn't be the first person who had actually claimed for professional subscriptions and flat rate expenses many years ago and subsequently forgot all about it.

If she needs to use her car for business travel then why hasn't she been claiming expenses from her employer?  100% of the expenses they pay is way better than 20% from HMRC.  Although from what you have posted I suspect she is going to struggle with that now HMRC won't documentary evidence of that sort of clam.

Upon checking with her, she is insistent that she has never claimed for subscriptions/flat rate expenses, and although I don't know what her tax code is, I can be fairly certain that is correct.

I asked her about the car situ and she said although contractually she has to have a car for her job, she doesn't claim travel expenses as she feels she doesn't cover enough mileage doing domicilliary visits to warrant the time/hassle of documenting and claiming, so I think we can probably reasonably ignore the use of car part.

Any advice on claiming for working from home/subscriptions/uniforms would still be much appreciated though.

Can't you just look at a recent payslip?

Assuming the claim is for no more than £2,500 in each year then she needs to complete form P87.

It is one P87 per tax year.  Only 2020-21 must be done (online) by tomorrow.

I will do, but as I am self-employed I have no understanding of tax codes... what exactly would the tax code tell me in relation to these potential expense claims?

The standard tax code is 1257L,  if the numbers are more than this she must have claimed some form of tax relief for something.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

rundmc-k said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

rundmc-k said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

rundmc-k said:

Any advice would be appreciated with regard to my wife's circumstances. She has worked for the NHS as a dietician for many years, and has never claimed tax relief on anything that she is most likely entitled to, e.g. professional subscriptions like the BDA

My basic understanding is that she can claim a rebate (until tomorrow 5th April) for 5 years which would be back to the 20/21 tax year. For the washing/cleaning of her clinical uniforms I believe she may be able to claim 20% tax relief of £125 per year?

She also has worked from home on average 1-2 days per week during that time, originally due to Covid, but in the last few years due to health related agreed reasonable adjustments. Does anyone know what her options would be for potential tax relief rebates on that?

Finally use of her car... she drives her own car numerous times per week to patient's houses for domiciliary appointments, but she doesn't keep a record of those particular journeys and she has never claimed any mileage from the NHS... should we just forget about that part, or is it worth looking further into claiming for that as well?

Many thanks

Have you checked what her current tax code is?

She wouldn't be the first person who had actually claimed for professional subscriptions and flat rate expenses many years ago and subsequently forgot all about it.

If she needs to use her car for business travel then why hasn't she been claiming expenses from her employer?  100% of the expenses they pay is way better than 20% from HMRC.  Although from what you have posted I suspect she is going to struggle with that now HMRC won't documentary evidence of that sort of clam.

Upon checking with her, she is insistent that she has never claimed for subscriptions/flat rate expenses, and although I don't know what her tax code is, I can be fairly certain that is correct.

I asked her about the car situ and she said although contractually she has to have a car for her job, she doesn't claim travel expenses as she feels she doesn't cover enough mileage doing domicilliary visits to warrant the time/hassle of documenting and claiming, so I think we can probably reasonably ignore the use of car part.

Any advice on claiming for working from home/subscriptions/uniforms would still be much appreciated though.

Can't you just look at a recent payslip?

Assuming the claim is for no more than £2,500 in each year then she needs to complete form P87.

It is one P87 per tax year.  Only 2020-21 must be done (online) by tomorrow.

I will do, but as I am self-employed I have no understanding of tax codes... what exactly would the tax code tell me in relation to these potential expense claims?

There are some very common tax codes.

A lot of people have the basic 1257L code (99.99% of the time that will be Personal Allowance only).

If she has applied for Marriage Allowance it could well be 1131N.

If you have applied for Marriage Allowance it could be 1383M.

1263L is quite common (basic Personal Allowance plus flat rate expenses of £60 for uniform laundry costs).

So if you know her code it will give you a clue.

rundmc-k

Thank you for that helpful information. I've managed to check and sure enough her tax code is 1257L.
So we'll definitely look at the P87 form tomorrow with regard to uniform/subscriptions/wfh. Thank you very much for your help

BrilliantButScary

Hope the following link is helpful:

https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/uniforms-work-clothing-and-tools

Get your wife to speak to a colleague about claiming mileage, this is usually done online. Could she have been put off, as it may well used to have been done by filling in a paper form.

I presume she has business insurance for her car.

The NHS is run on the good will of employees like your wife, but if you read this forum regularly you will see most people have no qualms about avoiding paying tax.

Grumpy_chap

It probably is worth recording and claiming future business mileage.  Claim from the employer for mileage is likely to add up to more than claim from HMRC for uniform etc