Agency staff who worked from home at any point during the pandemic - even for just one day - can still claim tax relief on household expenses, HMRC has said.
Since April, almost 800,000 employees across all professions who have been working from home during the pandemic, have already claimed tax relief on household related costs, HM Revenue and Customs has revealed.
The saving is worth up to £125 per year for each employee, and eligible workers can claim the full year’s entitlement if they have been told to work from home by their employer, even if it has been for one day during the tax year.
Employees who have either returned to working in an office since early April or are preparing for their return can still claim the working from home tax relief and benefit from the full year’s relief for the 2021 to 2022 tax year.
Employees can apply directly themselves and receive the full tax relief. Once their application has been approved, their tax code will be automatically adjusted for the 2021 to 2022 tax year, receiving the tax relief directly through their salary.
Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, says: “More people are getting back to office working now, but it’s not too late to apply for tax relief on household expenses if they’ve been working from home during the pandemic.
“It’s quick and easy to check if you’re eligible and apply online – go to GOV.UK and search ‘working from home tax relief’.”
Since April last year, the maximum amount employers have been able to pay tax-free without employees having to provide evidence of an increased bill was set at £6 a week. Employees who have not received the working from home expenses payment direct from their employer can apply to receive the tax relief from HMRC.
Eligible customers can claim tax relief based on the rate at which they pay tax.
For example, if an agent pays the 20 per cent basic rate of tax and claims tax relief on £6 a week, they would receive £1.20 a week in tax relief (20 per cent of £6 a week) towards the cost of their household bills.
Higher rate taxpayers would receive £2.40 a week (40 per cent of £6 a week). Over the course of the year, this means customers can reduce the tax they pay by £62.40 or £124.80 respectively.
If agents or industry supplier staff were required to work from home during the 2020 to 2021 tax year but did not claim for the tax relief, they have not missed out; HMRC will accept backdated claims for up to four years.
They will receive a lump sum payment for any successful backdated claims.
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That's amazing, you can spend 5 hours filling out forms and collecting receipts and you'll get £16.
It's a lot quicker than that, although quite fiddly. Only a small saving, but every little helps, as a certain big supermarket brand regularly tells us.
Plus, as my Nan always told me, if you look after the pennies, the pounds will take care of themselves! :)
Bearing in mind you can also ask for an assessment for additional heating and electricity costs etc. I did three years and it took half an hour. No request for receipts. Not all of us are super paid city agents and this would work out better than my hourly rate. ;-)
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