Working from home: claiming tax relief from April 2022
As part of emergency COVID-19 restrictions, Government instructions to work from home where possible, including the legal requirement to self-isolate if you or a close contact tested positive for coronavirus, meant that in tax years 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 2022 millions of people across the UK were eligible to claim tax relief on additional household costs incurred due to working from home.
The rules around the eligibility of the tax relief remain unchanged. But the lifting of pandemic restrictions means that most will no longer be eligible to claim from April 2022.
Employees can use the online service for claiming tax relief for working from home. This microservice was introduced to help speed up the claims process. It remains in place for the 2022 to 2023 tax year. HMRC expect claim levels to return to something close to pre-pandemic levels.
Employers can still choose to reimburse employees for reasonable additional household expenses that the employee incurred while carrying out employment duties at home under homeworking arrangements.
Where employers choose to make a payment to employees, employees cannot also claim from HMRC through the online service. This is unless employer payments are below £6 per week. In this case employees can claim the difference, providing all other eligibility requirements are met.
Employers may pay £6 per week tax and NI free, for monthly pay frequencies this can be up to £26 per month.
HMRC have updated their guidance on claiming tax relief for working from home to
- make the eligibility criteria clearer
- help people understand better what can be claimed and what cannot
Hybrid working: Employment Income Manual guidance
With many workplace offices being converted to meeting spaces and hot desks, HMRC has recognised an increase in the number of employers offering hybrid working arrangements. Consequently they have updated guidance within the Employment Income Manual to reflect this. There have been no changes to the relevant legislation or policies.
HMRC have introduced new signposting pages for travel expenses. This is to enhance navigation across the existing guidance and to highlight pages that are most appropriate to those working under hybrid working arrangements. These can be found at
HMRC have also made amendments to guidance on the tax treatment of certain homeworking costs and equipment, as well as the homeworking deduction, to provide certainty of HMRC’s view on the application of such rules under hybrid working arrangements.
The guidance has been amended at:
PAYadvice.UK 15/4/2022