Working from home has become commonplace in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic – and many businesses may never return to the office.
According to Martin Lewis, you might not know that you can claim tax relief, even if you’ve only worked at home for one day.
It’s not just on heating and broadband, either – there is quite a lot that you could potentially claw back, from company cars to office equipment.
Just what can you claim if you’re working from home?
What can you claim if you’re working from home?
Here are just some of the things that you can claim back during remote working…
Tax relief
The government’s website states that you can claim tax relief on some of your bills if you are required to work from home – however you cannot do so if you are working from home by choice.
These also only apply to things that you use in the course of your work, for example, you can claim on business phone calls or on gas and electricity – however, you cannot claim on things which are used both for personal and business reasons, such as rent or broadband.
You can claim tax relief on up to £6 per week – to a maximum of £26 per month – to cover any additional costs incurred as a result of working from home.
For example, if you pay the 20% basic rate of tax and claim tax relief on £6 a week, you would get £1.20 per week in tax relief.
According to Martin Lewis, this adds up to £62 per year for basic rate taxpayers and £124 per year at the higher rate – even if you’ve only worked from home for one day.
This is an increase from the previous rate of £4 a week, to a maximum of £18 per month. You will not need to keep any records of these costs, but if you claim for costs above this amount you will need to provide evidence of their use.
You can find out more information on gov.uk.
If you are already filing a self-assessment tax return, you can claim for this under the section on the form called Using Your Home As An Office – otherwise you will need to fill in a P87 form at the end of the tax year.
Office equipment
If you have had to buy certain equipment such as a computer to do your work at home, you can claim for relief on this. It qualifies for a type of allowance known as Annual Investment Allowance.
If your employer gave you money to buy the work equipment, you can also claim tax relief on the sum of money they gave you, since the Government has created a temporary Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions exemption for this.
Once again you can find out more information here.
Car and transport
If you have been given a company car this is normally liable for tax and National Insurance – but if you’ve not used it since March due to working remotely you can return it to your employer.
You can do this by returning the keys to them – you don’t have to give the vehicle back – and after 30 days it will be regarded as ‘unavailable’ to you.
You won’t be able to claim backdated tax relief if you’ve not used the car in a few months – but if you’re likely to be working remotely for several more months consider speaking to your employer about whether or not you can give back your company car in this way.
If you plan on doing this it’s also worth asking them about removing the fuel benefit tax – a tax that you have to pay for using the fuel that’s paid for by your employer.
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