Is anyone claiming the £6 a week working from home tax allowance?

nheather

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If you are having to work from home you are allowed to claim £6 per week allowance against tax paid. This is a claim to HRMC and doesn’t need any evidence or justification. This is to recognise extra expenses you incur because of working from home rather than in the office - for example, stationery, faster internet, monitor, chair etc.

I have been working from home from the very beginning and look to continue doing so at least until the end of the year, most likely beyond.

My understanding is this is £6 tax allowance rather than an actual £6 - so it is the tax you paid on £6 - so if you are on 20% that is £1.20 per week or £2.40 a week if you pay tax at 40%.

I am eligible to claim which until the end of the year would amount to £98.40 back in my pocket.

Interested in how many people are going to claim this. For me, although automatically eligible it will be paid out without question, I’m not sure I’m going to claim. I would feel a bit of a fraud because like most people I’m not out of pocket, in fact working from home is costing me a lot less - just taking out commuting costs and more expensive lunches is saving me loads.

I feel that I am putting unnecessary burden on the government coffers. But then again I think, am I being stupid, everyone else is going to claim so why shouldn’t I?

Cheers,

Nigel
 
I was working from home for about 2 months, so worth about £8.

I was saving at least £20 a week in petrol, so I was definitely better off.

Was also furloughed for 9 weeks, without the furlough, I could well have been made redundant.

So I'm definitely better off working from home.

Plus the fact that I can't be arsed :D
 
My wife's a key worker, worked all through. 6 quid is a bit of a piss take compared to the amount of electric, gas, water, new desk, chair and larger monitor we had to buy.
Considering the savings the council are making not using their facilities.
 
My wife's a key worker, worked all through. 6 quid is a bit of a piss take compared to the amount of electric, gas, water, new desk, chair and larger monitor we had to buy.
Considering the savings the council are making not using their facilities.
Is she still doing it? Remember it is £6 every week for as long as you are doing it. That is £312 a year, I imagine that would cover a fair amount of those things. Add to that the money saved from not having to commute or buy over-priced sandwiches.

And has she spoken to her employer - surprised the council aren’t providing things. My employer is letting us take monitors from our desks or order new ones if we can’t or don’t have one. It is giving us £70 towards a chair. My wife works at a school and they are providing laptops for those that don’t already have one.

Also there is nothing stopping her putting in a full tax claim, the £6 a week is just a claim you can make without any evidence, but if you have bigger genuine expenses you can claim against them by submitting the actual expenses incurred.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
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My employer specifically ordered us all new laptops when this all started, just in case we would have to work from home. We were allowed to take any office equipment with us that we wanted too.
 
Is she still doing it? Remember it is £6 every week for as long as you are doing it. That is £312 a year, I imagine that would cover a fair amount of those things. Add to that the money saved from not having to commute or buy over-priced sandwiches.

And has she spoken to her employer - surprised the council aren’t providing things. My employer is letting us take monitors from our desks or order new ones if we can’t or don’t have one. It is giving us £70 towards a chair. My wife works at a school and they are providing laptops for those that don’t already have one.

Cheers,

Nigel

My wife still has to use an old windows 8.1 laptop. She has a new one but they won't let her go into county hall to collect it.
The day they closed the office, they said take the screen if you want, we had no idea it would be this long at the time and they won't open the building to let anyone back in. No allowance for a chair or desk either, that I am aware of. Some of her colleagues are working off the sofa on a laptop. Very poor indeed.
 
My wife still has to use an old windows 8.1 laptop. She has a new one but they won't let her go into county hall to collect it.
The day they closed the office, they said take the screen if you want, we had no idea it would be this long at the time and they won't open the building to let anyone back in. No allowance for a chair or desk either, that I am aware of. Some of her colleagues are working off the sofa on a laptop. Very poor indeed.

As I added above, if she has specific expenses that she has incurred to work from home she can submit a claim by providing evidence.

Remember though that HMRC can only give tax relief on the expenses not cover the actual expense.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
If it’s an allowance and part of the Self Assesment calculation I see no reason why not to use the allowance. No different than when I make charitable contributions or other things I add to my allowances on Self Assesment.

However as I understand it, this is actually claiming tax relief on what your employer pays you. So your employer needs to pay you the £6 uplift and then you won’t be taxed on it. Just like your employer can pay you mileage and then you won’t be taxed on it. I didn’t think you can just add it yourself. But granted I didn’t fully look into it.
 
If it’s an allowance and part of the Self Assesment calculation I see no reason why not to use the allowance. No different than when I make charitable contributions or other things I add to my allowances on Self Assesment.

However as I understand it, this is actually claiming tax relief on what your employer pays you. So your employer needs to pay you the £6 uplift and then you won’t be taxed on it. Just like your employer can pay you mileage and then you won’t be taxed on it. I didn’t think you can just add it yourself. But granted I didn’t fully look into it.

Yes and no.

Your employer is allowed to pay you £6 a week to cover working from home without any justification or evidence needed.

If your employer pays that then that is fine end of story.

But if your employer doesn’t pay it you can go to HMRC and say “hey, I didn’t get my £6, so I had to fork out myself, so please give me the tax I paid on that”

I’ve just tested it

499E3055-239D-4A9F-A748-EE2165856A66.jpeg


Pretty much what I do each year for my business mileage. HMRC says I can have 45p a mile, my employer pays me 11p per mile. So I go to HRMC and say “hey every business mile I do I have to pay 34p of my own money, please give me the tax I paid on that back’.

But I decided, I won’t be claiming the £6 per week, that would feel too cheeky.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
My employer made it really clear that we were not to take monitors home..... they day after I got my manager to approve me taking a couple home :)

That said they are generally good with stuff like that.

Worked at home for 4 months, but won't be claiming (CBA)
 
Yes and no.

Your employer is allowed to pay you £6 a week to cover working from home without any justification or evidence needed.

If your employer pays that then that is fine end of story.

But if your employer doesn’t pay it you can go to HMRC and say “hey, I didn’t get my £6, so I had to fork out myself, so please give me the tax I paid on that”

I’ve just tested it

View attachment 1346370

Pretty much what I do each year for my business mileage. HMRC says I can have 45p a mile, my employer pays me 11p per mile. So I go to HRMC and say “hey every business mile I do I have to pay 34p of my own money, please give me the tax I paid on that back’.

But I decided, I won’t be claiming the £6 per week, that would feel too cheeky.

Cheers,

Nigel
Nice. In that case I will make certain I add it to my self assessment. I don’t think it’s cheeky at all, it’s tax avoidance, so in accordance with the rules. No different than other tax allowance claims like my pension, charitable giving etc.
 
You can't claim for internet if you already have it and use it for social reasons.
 
I claimed for last year and will claim for 20/21 in April 21. It doesn't effect your employer but you get a rebate from HMRC as a result of the increase in tax allowance.

I'd rather get as much of my earnings in my account as possible allowing me to choose what happens with it rather than the government..
 
Nope - I have been working from home since March but as others have said, I am saving on not commuting. My OH has been furloughed since April, so we are already better off than what could have been the case.
 
Agree with the comments can’t be arsed. Anyway you do know you’ll be paying it back in higher taxes one way or another
 
Nice. In that case I will make certain I add it to my self assessment. I don’t think it’s cheeky at all, it’s tax avoidance, so in accordance with the rules. No different than other tax allowance claims like my pension, charitable giving etc.
Agreed, if you do self-assessment it should just be a matter of ticking the right boxes, so not really a hassle. Plus if you're entitled to it, why not. Between income tax, NI, VAT, fuel duty and so on, it's easy to pay out 50-70% income in tax in any given month - no harm in getting some relief on that, even if minimal.
 
Agree with the comments can’t be arsed. Anyway you do know you’ll be paying it back in higher taxes one way or another

I'm not claiming it simply because I don't feel I have been inconvenienced so it doesn't feel right to me.

But intrigued by what you have said - go on explain why/how I would be paying it back in higher taxes.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
I think he means that taxes will inevitably be going up at some point to pay for the impact of Covid-19. That’s my firm view as well.
 
Just glancing through this thread I should point out it is possible to claim more than the tax from £6 per week for working from home. The £6 figure is only where you don't have to provide receipts. You can claim more if its genuine expenditure exclusively linked with work, you had to work from home and you have documented proof.
 

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