Can You Still Claim Working from Home Tax Relief in 2023?

What Is Work from Home Tax Relief?

This is essentially money back from the government on your taxes to reimburse you for the costs of working from home. Working from home tax relief has a few eligibility criteria depending on the year in which you’re claiming for. For those that are employed, you can only make a claim if your employer hasn’t reimbursed you for any of these costs. If you’re self-employed, you can deduct home expenses as allowable business expenses on your self assessment.

Typical costs associated that you may be able to claim working from home tax relief on include:

• Electricity and gas bills

• Internet and telephone bills

• Heating bills

How work at home tax can help with energy bills.

Covid Work from Home Tax Relief

If you were told to work from home by your employer during the pandemic, you may be eligible to claim working from home tax relief on any extra costs incurred during this time. As millions of people were affected, the rules for the criteria were relaxed, meaning anyone who worked from home during this time, even just for a day, was entitled to the tax relief.

Additional costs for lighting, heating, internet usage and more applied, so the government only deemed it fair that you could claim on a weekly flat rate. The working from home tax relief was widely available, meaning people who wouldn’t usually qualify could suddenly claim some form of compensation.

Martin Lewis encourages people to claim £124.80 a year with WFH tax relief.

What Is the Criteria for Working from Home Tax Relief?

Different tax years offer different amounts when it comes to work from home tax relief.

Tax Year 2022/2023

For those that are employed, the current financial year has the following criteria:

• Your job requires you to live far from your office

• You don’t have an office

You cannot claim working from home tax relief if the following applies:

• You are allowed to work from home some, or all, of the time

• Covid has forced you to work from home

• Your employer has an office but you’re unable to attend because it’s full

If you pass the qualifying criteria for this financial year, you are only able to claim on work related expenses, not for items that are used for both business and private use. You can claim on phone calls, for example, but not on rent or internet usage.

You’re able to claim working from home tax relief on:

• Business phone calls

• Gas and electricity use specifically for your work area

This entitles you to claim tax relief of £6 a week, depending on your rate of tax. A basic rate earner would receive £1.20 a week, which is 20% of the flat rate.

If you’re self-employed, and work from home, any work related expenses can be added to your tax return. You will need to add any working from home tax relief items as deductions to your tax return in order to receive the benefit.

Tax Year 2021/2022

If you’re employed, the good news is the rules were relaxed for this financial year. If you worked from home, even for just a single day of the year, you were entitled to claim working from home tax relief. Even better was the news that you didn’t have to keep track of any expenses. As it was a flat rate you were claiming on, the idea was you wouldn’t need to provide proof.

If you’re self-employed, you should have detailed any outgoings specifically related to working from home on your tax return. If you didn’t do this, you may have opted for simplified expenses to make use of flat rates.

The deadline for making a claim for working from home tax relief for the financial year 2021/2022 is 5th April 2026.

Tax Year 2020/2021

This financial year works the same as 2021/2022. As these years covered the pandemic, they both have relaxed rules for claims. You could effectively call them Covid work from home tax relief years. If you haven't yet claimed tax relief for these years and you're eligible, you could be owed up to £420 in tax relief.

The deadline for making a claim for working from home tax relief for the financial year 2020/2021 is 5th April 2025.

Anything Prior

Working from home tax relief for the years before 2020 covers similar criteria to the current year. The only difference is the flat rate was lower, at £4 a week. This meant that basic rate taxpayers could only receive 80p work from home tax relief per week.

How to Claim Work from Home Tax Relief

If you’re employed, you have a few different options available to you. You can either claim working from home tax relief through the government website or use a claims management company to process your claim for you.

Government Website

By using their website, you can fill out a form, which will tell you if you’re qualified to claim. You’ll need to register on their website with your National Insurance number and a payslip, P60 or UK passport to create a Government Gateway ID.

Claims Management Company

If you’re unable to register on their website, or you don’t have time to process a working from home tax relief claim yourself, you can make use of a claims management company. These are specialists who have the knowledge to process your claim and can check to see how much you’re owed. They will liaise with HMRC on your behalf and sort out any paperwork involved, which can be a cause for more than a few headaches.

If you’re thinking of using a claims management company, you can check your eligibility by clicking on the button below. You can start the claim for your working from home tax relief.