Tax credit for WFH

My Mum sent me a txt about claiming £6p/w for heating/power etc if you are WFH due to COVID. Is anyone claiming this?

Mum did say she read it in the Daily Mail, so you know, there’s that. :laughing:

It does exist and there’s a quite a bit of info online. But you do have to go to self-assessment tax etc etc. I can’t be bothered as I’m quite happy on PAYE.

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Yes it’s real, it’s been around a while (well not just for Covid) no I cba to claim it.

Technically your company can pay you up to £6 a week, which should be paid tax free.

However, if your company won’t pay you this (they don’t have to), you are able to do a tax reclaim on the £6 e.g. you would get tax credit for 20% or 40% of £6 depending on your tax rate

Thanks. Think I’ll file in the CBA folder and just tell Mum I’m claiming it. :wink:

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More details here:

Also, right at the bottom it mentions that if your company refund specific expenses you’ve incurred setting up a WFH office etc, this will be tax free for this tax year only as a special COVID deal.

Our company have just announced they’re going to give us a one off lump payment (amount unconfirmed) to cover our WFH expenses and home office purchases, which we can spend (or save) as we see fit. In this instance they’ve not yet determined if it’s tax free.

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I have done it recently. You dont have to be on self assessment. You need a Gov gateway login but that’s easy enough to get.

You fill in a form and they change your tax code.

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So its close to £2 a week. Hardly seems worth the effort but I also think I should just because!

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Are you back at work and now not claiming?

The link I provided suggests you can only only claim retrospectively, you can’t advising them that it’ll be ongoing?

I’m still at home. It asked how much I’d spent this tax year. So did £6 x number of weeks I’ve been at home and will be. Last I was told is end of October so I calculated it till then.

Guess if I carry on past thenill have to submit again.

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Agreed. I’ll be making one claim at the end of the tax year, with a view to them changing my PAYE code for next year to recover it.

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Presumably you were told that months ago :sweat_smile:

Yeah, we were lightly being encouraged to go back. We’re now largely expecting to WFH until the spring

Yeah back in August they said end of October at least. That was when the Gov were trying to encourage people back, now they are saying go back home. Cant see me going back this, think its swinging more towards never

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Yep, same at my work. Just before my leave it was all angling towards us coming back in December in a blended, part time fashion. All the managers were towing the party line saying how good it will be. They were just trying to work out the How’s - rotas, or booking system, or fixed days etc.

Then a few days later Boris comes out with his latest and the campus has a bunch of students testing positive. Now I can’t see it happening this winter.

Pretty much same here. We were allowed to a max of 20% but getting permission is extremely hard. Looks like it will be Xmas at least now.

Ah right, I don’t see myself returning to the office this tax year (/ever) so I guess I can submit on that basis. Cheers!

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Yeah, I should have waited or put it to the end of the tax year. Not sure when if ever I will be going now.

Now confirmed you don’t need to wait. HMRC are giving an entire year of relief, even if you have only had to WFH for one day in the tax year:

https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2020/04/martin-lewis--working-from-home-due-to-coronavirus--claim-p6-wk-/?_ga=2.128236364.1730843120.1603269786-1958412836.1603269786

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Just done that, cheers

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