Working from Home Allowance rules - Employed and Self-employed

Working from Home Allowance rules - Employed and Self-employed

If you are employed:
- You may claim tax relief for additional household costs if you have to work from home for all or part of the week.
- You may only claim it if your job requires you to live far away from your office or your employer doesn't have an office at all.
- You may only claim for expenses related to your work, such as business phone calls, gas and electricity for your work area etc.
- You may claim tax relief on either £6 per week or the actual costs incurred. For example, if you're a 20% basic rate tax payer and claim tax relief on £6 per week, you'd get £1.20 per week in tax relief.

To claim 'Working from Home Allowance':
1) Click on the 'Employment (SA102)' page or click '+ NEW PAGE' on the left hand side and add it if you need to.
2) Click '+ GROUP' on the right hand side


3) Select the 'General expenses' category > 'SAVE'


4) Select 'WORKING FROM HOME ALLOWANCE'



If you are self-employed:

...and claiming simplified expenses:

If you are Self-Employed and work from home, you may be entitled to claim part of your home expenses as a deductible expense.

HMRC will allow a small charge of £2 per week without query. If a larger amount is claimed then you may be asked to justify this. Detailed guidance can be found on the HMRC website at www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/bim47825.htm.

You can claim up to £104 for broadband/power and not get any queries from HMRC. If you want to add more, you'll have to do some math such as how many hours per day do you spend using those utilities for business purposes. So say if you use them 50% of the time for work and 50% for private use then you can add the yearly total and say 50% in the private use option. You may be audited though so make sure you have detailed business records at hand.

 

The flat rates per month are as below:



...and claiming actual expenses:

You may be able to claim for a proportion of the costs of expenses like:
- Heating
- Electricity
- Council Tax
- Mortage interest or rent
- Internet and telephone use

Please refer to the link below if you need some assistance with calculating the above:

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