Throughout the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a relaxation of the home working rules due to people normally office based being required to work from home. It has recently been confirmed that these easements around home working will be extended into 2021/22.
As such, during this time employees may have additional household costs if they have to work at home on a regular basis, either for all or part of the week. This includes having been told to work from home because of coronavirus. Rather than being a home worker under contract.
Additional costs include things like heating, metered water bills or business calls that employees can demonstrate have been incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily as a direct result of working from home. Costs that would stay the same whether they are working at home or not, do not qualify for tax relief.
If an employer doesn't already reimburse their employees for these additional costs, employees may be eligible to claim tax relief on them. Employees will receive the quickest response if they apply on the HMRC online service, which is now open for claims that are for periods up to 5 April 2022.
More information around claiming can be found here.
