Can you claim tax back for working at home?  Have you had to work from home because of COVID? Would you like to know how you can claim tax relief and get extra cash into your pockets? Well, carry on listening to this this week I Hate Numbers podcast episode to find out how.

Firstly, I will let you know how the tax relief works.  Secondly, how you can check if you are eligible to make the claim.  Lastly, how you make the claim and what that can be worth to you.

Listen to find out more.

If you work from home, or have staff working remotely for your company, then this podcast is for you!  The pandemic resulted in millions of people having to work from home.  Tax relief for working from here has been with us for several years, but for 20-21 and 21-22 the rules have relaxed.  One day working from home, can result in being able to claim £125.

Listen to find out more.

How to claim for working from home

Can you claim tax back for working at home? Short answer, yes.  Firstly, either claim tax relief based on a flat rate allowance’ or claim the extra costs you have actually incurred.  To do so you’ll need evidence such as receipts, bills, or contracts

This can be worth as much as £125 for a year.  You can claim for previous years, there is up to £500 on the table.  Follow the link to check if you can claim

Conclusion

Moreover, do you want to know the answer to the question ‘Can you claim tax back for working at home?    This podcast tells you all you need to know, calculations, tips, and advice

Listen to find out more.

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Have you had to work from home because of Covid? Would you like to know how you can claim tax relief and get extra cash into your pockets? Well, carry on listening to this week's podcast episode of I Hate Numbers to find out how. Firstly, I'll let you know how the tax relief works. Secondly, how you can check if you're eligible to make the claim, and finally, how you actually make the claim and what that can actually be worth to you.

You are listening to the I Hate Numbers Podcast with Mahmood Reza. The I Hate Numbers podcast mission is to help your business survive and thrive by you better understanding and connecting with your numbers. Number love and care is what it's about. Tune in every week. Now, here's your host, Mahmood Reza.

Hi folks. I'm Mahmood, an accountant who loves to help business owners connect with and understand their numbers, improve their attitude to money, make more profit, save tax, and time. Okay, let's crack on with the podcast. Now, firstly, what is the tax relief about? Well, because of covid and government guidelines and restrictions, millions of people have had to be working from home.

The scheme is designed to help you cover the extra costs of working from home. Those extra cups of tea and coffee you're drinking, keeping the heating on for much longer, using more of the internet, you get the picture. Now, working from home means extra costs in running your household. To compensate for those working at home costs, your employer can pay you six pounds per week, tax-free, without you having to produce evidence of those increased bills.

For those employees who do not receive the working-from-home expenses directly from their employer, you can apply to get the tax relief yourself directly from HMRC. More of that later on in the podcast. Let's talk in terms of who qualifies and how you can actually check. Now, if you were told to work from home by your employer because of Coronavirus, and as a result your household costs have increased, then you are eligible to claim the working-from-home tax relief.

The process is relatively quick and easy to claim via HMRC's own online portal, and in 2021 alone, HMRC received more than 3 million claims for the working-from-home tax relief. That's a hell of a lot of kettles boiled. There are two ways to get your hands on that money. Either your employer pays you an extra six pounds a week equivalent to 312 pounds in a year in your weight packet, all free of tax.

That's unusual for many employers, but you can claim the tax relief directly yourself. More of that later on in the podcast. Let's now talk in terms of who is eligible to claim the tax relief. Unfortunately, this particular scheme doesn't apply to the self-employed. There's a separate regime that exists if you are self-employed to claim a working-from-home allowance. You've got to be an employee,

you've got to be carrying out your work duties at home, and working at home, not because of your choice or because you prefer to do so, but because your employer says you must. Now, your eligibility can be checked online, and the good thing about the working-from-home tax relief because of Coronavirus is you only need to be working at home for one day to be entitled for the full 12 months.

That's pretty good going, isn't it? Let's recap what's been said so far. If you've been working from home because of Coronavirus because you've had to, your boss has told you to do so, then you can claim working-from-home tax relief. You only have to be working from home for one day, you've got to be an employee, and that tax relief is to compensate you for the additional household costs that you've got while you're working from home.

You've got to be an employee and you've got to be performing work duties when at home. So, watching Lou swimming, Jeremy Vine, and that's all you are doing, doesn't quite cut it. Let's look at now how you can claim and how much it's worth to you. Now, the application process, you can apply directly through a dedicated free online government portal.

Once you've gone through an approval process, then you apply for the tax relief directly, and if it's for 21/22, then your tax code will be changed accordingly. You can make a retrospective claim and you can go back up to three years. It's important to note that the working-from-home tax relief has been with us for a number of years.

The Coronavirus situation has relaxed the eligibility rules whereby you only need to be working from home for one day to be entitled for a full years’ worth of benefit. If this is your first encounter with HMRC’s online systems, it's critical that you get yourself a government gateway ID. The process itself should take no more than 20 minutes to do.

There'll be a link supplied with the show notes to show you how you apply and register for a government gateway ID. Now, government gateway ID means you will not be able to process the claim. If you are in a system of what's called self-assessment, so you complete a personal tax return, then the claim is made via your tax return.

Let's round up now with how much the claim is actually worth. What's the pound notes? What's the monetary equivalent of making this claim? Now, if you're making the claim for the year 21/22, that's six pounds per week. If you're claiming the tax relief on that, it is reference to what's called your tax situation.

So, if you are a basic-rate taxpayer, you'll get the equivalent of about 63 pounds. If you are what's called a higher-rate taxpayer, so you are paying tax to the rate of 40%, that's 125 pounds worth of extra money. Now, in 21/22, your tax code is likely to be adjusted, so, therefore, you'll pay less tax and you'll get the benefit that way.

If you are making a claim for before 21/22, and you've got plenty of time to do that, then it'll end up once you make the claim online, eventually, it'll wing its way through the system, and cash will be deposited either into your bank account or you'll be getting a check from HMRC. You can go back up to four years.

So, working from home has been with us for a number of years. Coronavirus has mainly relaxed the conditions for 20/21 and 21/22 onwards. If you happen to be a Scottish taxpayer, by the way, the savings are higher, but then again, so are the tax rates. Now, folks, let's just summarise what we've said in this podcast.

So, if you have had to be working from home because of Coronavirus, then you can claim a working-from-home tax relief. That's worth extra cash to you, and it can be worth as much as 500 pounds spread over a four-year period. The claim process is relatively straightforward. You've got to be an employee.

You've got to be made to work from home because of Coronavirus, and for the Coronavirus situation, remember, only one day at work entitles you to a full year’s worth of tax. If you find that your working-from-home costs have actually been much more than 312 pounds a year, then you are perfectly entitled to make a claim on those additional extra costs.

The difference is you've got to provide the evidence of what those additional costs from working from home have been, but there's nothing stopping you putting in a higher claim, and if it exceeds over two and a half thousand pounds, then you will need to complete a personal tax return. Thanks for listening to this episode.

Let me know your thoughts, good or bad. If you've enjoyed this episode, head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a review. Share this episode with your friends and colleagues, and help me to help others by sharing the content. Until next week, folks, stay sanguine, stay positive, and get those claims in. We hope you enjoyed this episode and appreciate you taking the time to listen to the show.

We hope you got some value. If you did, then we'd love it if you shared the episode. We look forward to you joining us next week for another I Hate Numbers episode.