Employees who were required to work from home during the pandemic, and who claimed the £6 per week tax relief, should review their tax code to check whether HMRC has included the relief in their notice of coding, advises accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg. If the relief has been included and, unless they are still eligible for the relief in 2022/23, they should contact HMRC to get the notice of coding corrected. Otherwise, additional tax will be due at the end of the tax year (i.e. when they need to repay the amounts they were not entitled to).
The rules around relief for home office expenses were relaxed during the pandemic, with employees able to claim the flat-rate amount for the whole tax year even if they were required to work from home for only one day during that year. As Robert Salter, a client tax director at the firm, notes: ‘this was a temporary relaxation of the rules on the part of HMRC. As such, the home office relief is only available from 6 April 2022 onwards, if your employer specifically requires you to work from a home office – e.g. to stop the spread of Covid or because your job has been 'relocated' and now is contractually regarded 100% as a home office role’.
HMRC has recently added an Example 12 to the guidance in its Employment Income Manual at para EIM32790 claiming tax relief when you work from home. The example suggests that the ‘time-limited easement’ which allows individuals to claim relief for the full tax year, even where they have only been required to work from home for part of that tax year, will end on 5 April 2023.
Employees who were required to work from home during the pandemic, and who claimed the £6 per week tax relief, should review their tax code to check whether HMRC has included the relief in their notice of coding, advises accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg. If the relief has been included and, unless they are still eligible for the relief in 2022/23, they should contact HMRC to get the notice of coding corrected. Otherwise, additional tax will be due at the end of the tax year (i.e. when they need to repay the amounts they were not entitled to).
The rules around relief for home office expenses were relaxed during the pandemic, with employees able to claim the flat-rate amount for the whole tax year even if they were required to work from home for only one day during that year. As Robert Salter, a client tax director at the firm, notes: ‘this was a temporary relaxation of the rules on the part of HMRC. As such, the home office relief is only available from 6 April 2022 onwards, if your employer specifically requires you to work from a home office – e.g. to stop the spread of Covid or because your job has been 'relocated' and now is contractually regarded 100% as a home office role’.
HMRC has recently added an Example 12 to the guidance in its Employment Income Manual at para EIM32790 claiming tax relief when you work from home. The example suggests that the ‘time-limited easement’ which allows individuals to claim relief for the full tax year, even where they have only been required to work from home for part of that tax year, will end on 5 April 2023.
