Last year due to the pandemic, the government increased the work from home allowance to £6 per week.
The tax break came as a welcome, unexpected bonus for many employees.
It was recognised that household bills would naturally rise from more people spending more time working at home whether that be heating or internet usage.
These working life changes are driven by the pandemic, which has seen many businesses having to close workplaces, sometimes several times, meaning millions of UK staff have been required to work from home temporarily, even if just for part of the week.
If an employee’s usual workplace was closed and as a result they had to work from home, HMRC have confirmed that those members of staff are eligible for the working from home allowance.
Plus, due to the way the guidance is written, employees who worked from home for just one day are eligible to claim for an entire year.
This gives workers a £6 per week allowance to cover home working costs and can be applied for at any time after the new tax year started in April.
If they have not claimed for last year, then two claims are allowable.
The £6 per week working from home allowance is worth £62 for basic rate (those who pay tax at 20%) taxpayers; £125 for higher rate (40%) taxpayers and £140 for additional rate (45%) taxpayers.
HMRC relaxed the rules last year on who is eligible to claim the working from home allowance.
Before the Coronavirus pandemic, a worker could only claim the allowance in limited circumstances, where their employer required them to work at home and for that specific period only.
HMRC spent a lot of time and money setting up a microsite to allow people to claim easily so extending the offering for an additional year was easy to do.
Many people who would ordinarily make stand-alone claims can use this system which would save HMRC employing a task force to check these individually.
Those that have not claimed their allowance for the 2020/21 tax year can do this at the same time as claiming the current tax year.
This will not cost employers anything but would be worth sending around their employees to allow them to benefit from it.
The relief will be given by way of tax code adjustment to reduce the tax the individual will pay.
If you complete a Self-Assessment tax return it is asked that you put through your work from home claim when submitting your return but you will be notified of this when checking eligibility to claim on the HMRC microservice website.
If you would like any assistance with claiming your work from home allowance or informing your workforce, please get in touch on 01482 888820.