With more people working from home due to Coronavirus, it is worth a reminder that you can claim Tax Relief for additional household costs
You may be able to claim tax relief for additional household costs if you have to work at home on a regular basis, either for all or part of the week. This includes if you have to work from home because of coronavirus (COVID-19). However, you cannot claim tax relief if you choose to work from home.
What is Meant by Additional Costs?
Additional costs include things like heating, metered water bills, home contents insurance, business calls or a new broadband connection. In all cases the additional cost is simply the amount over and above what it is normally as a result of any extra time spent working from home. Importantly, these additional costs do not include costs that would stay the same whether you were working at home or in an office, such as mortgage interest, rent or council tax.
You may also be able to claim tax relief on equipment you’ve bought, such as a laptop, chair or mobile phone.
How much can you claim?
You can either claim tax relief on:
- £6 a week from 6 April 2020 (for previous tax years the rate is £4 a week) – you will not need to keep evidence of your extra costs.
- the exact amount of extra costs you’ve incurred above the weekly amount – you’ll need evidence such as receipts, bills or contracts.
You’ll get tax relief based on the rate at which you pay tax. 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 (20% of £6).
Talk to us about Payroll
There might be other payroll based tax reliefs that are available that you don’t know about.
