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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Covid-19 issues  →  Thread

Anyone working from home during Covid ?

Keith S Adviser
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Kirkham CAB

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Joined: 7 March 2018

Did you know that there is now a tax relief scheme, for people working from home? The following is an extract published by Martin Lewis:
Claim tax relief on £6/wk (worth £1.20/wk at 20% tax, £2.40/wk at higher rate). If your employer won’t pay expenses for your extra costs due to necessary working from home, but you have them, then you can ask for the amount to be deducted from your taxable income.
To make the process easy, HMRC says that claims in line with the employers’ payment (ie, for £6/wk) will not need to justify that figure – meaning you won’t need to keep receipts or prove information.
The impact of a £6/wk claim is the tax savings, that’s a gain of £1.20/wk (about £62/year) for basic 20% rate taxpayers, and £2.40/wk (about £124/yr) for higher 40% rate taxpayers.
How to claim the tax relief
If you normally do a self-assessment form, you can claim on it. Yet for most people, this will simply require filling in a P87 form. This can be done through an online P87 form through your Government Gateway account or by filling out a postal P87 form.
You’ll be asked for your employer’s name and PAYE reference (which you can find on your payslip or P60), and your job title. For postal P87s, you’ll also need your national insurance number. The key section for filling in is titled ‘Using your home as an office’ (pictured below). Assuming you’re not eligible for tax relief on other work-related expenses, like uniform tax rebates, leave them blank.
In the online form, there are two boxes:
‘Amount paid by you’. HMRC has told us that provided you’ve had increased costs, just put a total amount that’s equivalent to £6/wk for the period you’ve been working from home and that’s fine, you won’t need to show receipts.

‘Amount paid to you by your employer’. If your employer hasn’t paid you a working from home allowance or reimbursed your homeworking expenses, just put £0.

Mike Hughes
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Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

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Total Posts: 3138

Joined: 17 June 2010

Keith S Adviser - 09 July 2020 05:11 PM

Did you know that there is now a tax relief scheme.

Well yes. Thank you.  It has been in existence for many years. The issue for many is whether the employer has a contractual scheme which is more generous.