The pandemic has changed the way many of us work forcing huge numbers of us to work from home for the first time. It’s been stressful, confusing, blurred the lines between home and work life and highlighted more than a few technical difficulties, but as we move forward with the government’s opening up plan it’s unlikely that things will ever go back to how they were pre-covid.
Whilst it’s been an unsettling period of change one small benefit is that employees may be able to claim tax relief for the additional household costs that they have incurred from working from home on a regular basis.
If you were told to work from home due to Covid this means YOU! And to make it even better you don’t need an accountant to help you claim you can do it yourself. All you have to do is go to the government website and you can find out all the details of how to make your claim.
Here’s a few things that potential claims could be made for:
- Lighting
- Heating
- The cost of telephone calls
Whilst you are looking at the costs you have incurred over the last financial year, it’s also worth looking at other areas of your professional life that you may also be eligible to claim against, such as your staff uniform, regular professional subscriptions or any membership of regulatory bodies or trade unions.
You will be able to back claim for the previous tax year, and HMRC will adjust your tax code for the years going forward so you will benefit from the tax relief each month. But bear in mind that if your circumstances change and you are no longer working from home, you need to notify HMRC to remove this adjustment as you could end up underpaying your tax!
We hope that you have found this helpful and please share this information with anyone in your life that you feel may be able to benefit. It’s been a tough old year to put it mildly, but let’s try and find every silver lining we can.
If you ever need the advice and support of an accountant, you can call our friendly team on 01952 882434 or send us an email to [email protected].