Working at home allowance
Where you are required to work at home, your employer can pay you a tax-free allowance of £6 per week (or £26 per month). For periods before 6 April 2020, the tax-free allowance was £4 per week (or £18 per month). This allowance is to cover the additional costs incurred by using your home as a workplace, such as heat, light, metered water, insurance and broadband fees.
If your employer doesn’t pay this allowance, but you are required to work at home for at least some of your working time, you can claim the same amounts as tax deductions from HMRC.
You don’t need to provide evidence of the additional home expenses incurred, if you claim up to £6 per week. Where the additional costs exceed this value, you can claim for the actual expenses incurred, but you will be required to have proof in the form of receipts, bills or contracts.
A claim for home working expenses for 2020/21 can be submitted online, or as part of your Self-Assessment Tax Return, or using form P87. Claims for earlier years may be submitted on tax returns or form P87 and they must reach HMRC within four years of the end of the tax year to which they apply.
