Coronavirus - Working from home costs

There is a little known, but long standing, relief claim that can be made if you are required to work from home.  HMRC recognise that in such cases there can be increased costs such as heating and electricity for your work area and will approve without the need for receipts a claim at the rate of £6 per week/£26 per month (from April 2020;  for the previous tax year the rate is £4 per week/£18 per month)  to cover these additional costs.  If your costs are higher and you wish to claim more than the approved flat rate, then you will need to evidence these costs and separate them out from your normal day to day cost of running your home.

If you choose to work from home no relief can be claimed, and you cannot claim for things that you use for both private and business such as broadband.

How do I claim?

If you are normally required to submit a self- assessment form, the claim can be made there.  However, if you do not usually submit a self-assessment form then you should complete a form P87 either online or by post.   You will need a recent payslip and your national insurance number to complete the form.

Alternatively, your employer can pay you £6 per week extra tax-free, however, at a time that sees many employers struggling with the economic impact of the Coronavirus it would probably be more helpful to them if you made your claim directly to HMRC via the form P87.

One last point to bear in mind is that this claim must be made retrospectively on expenses incurred not anticipated.  As that is the case, it would be better to wait until you have a few months to claim or when you return to your normal work environment.