£6 tax relief per week for home working costs - a pittance?

[suggestionsplease1]

I'm just trying to get my head around this - so if you're forced into home working due to Covid you can claim tax relief on £6/week for additional expenses due to extra heating/ electricity use....so for a 20% tax payer that amounts to getting back £1.20 per week?!

My additional expenditure on gas/electric due to Covid will far exceed that, as I imagine most people's will....is this not a bit of a cop out?!

There seems to be something about employers can make this additional £6 payment per week to staff as well - that hasn't happened for us - is it really happening for employees elsewhere?

Finally, I'm going to try to put in more accurate figures as I have to fill in self assessments anyway, but I am hampered by the fact that I don't have a smart meter. I thought one way to do it would be to compare a previous year's expenditure when I wasn't working from home with the present year's expenditure - would that be acceptable as proof of additional costs do you think? (I know there's only going to be about 6/7 weeks worth of homeworking to account for for this self assessment but it will be more relevant for next years 31st Jan deadline.)

HMRC does not reimburse companies and individuals for expenses, it provides tax relief on them. So the allowance is £6 per week which with the offset of no commuting costs, lunches, coffees etc, seems reasonable.

Christ’s sake, those working from home on full pay don’t need an extra £6 a week because most workers in this situation are saving money buy having no transport costs and fewer bought lunches/coffees.

Meanwhile millions have been made redundant and are feverishly job searching from home while eating through their savings. They don’t get £6 a week to offset the costs of working at job searching from home. They get fuck all.

So yes YABU to complain about free government money you are getting is not enough when millions in greater need are getting zero.

I claimed , got a new tax code. It's better than nothing and I've saved on other stuff

@thevassal - I can understand how that's frustrating.

I live in the South East and work in london . Almost everyone in my sectors commutes for 45 mins - 1.5 hrs via train or tube and pays £100s per month commuting costs so it's a very different scenario.

It’s not some favour dreamt up by the government because of covid. Business expenses are VAT exempt, they were before covid and you can claim the VAT back

I can totally understand that this could be stressful for some people. In my family, we all have zero commuting costs usually - walk to work/school - and all take packed lunches. So there are no savings to be made for us! Luckily I am in a financial position to be able to afford this but it would be awful if we were on a tight budget. I dread to think what our heating costs are right now as it seems to have been a colder than usual winter too.

The £6 doesn't need to go on your tax return, and will not make you liable for business rates. (I've been claiming it, or the equivalent, for about 25 years. )

@BungleandGeorge

It’s not some favour dreamt up by the government because of covid. Business expenses are VAT exempt, they were before covid and you can claim the VAT back

The £6 per week allowance is absolutely nothing to do with VAT!

I don’t think people quite understand what this is. It’s not a £6 grant from the government! You can claim the VAT back on £6 of the expenses you incur. It’s your own money. Bit like if you buy kids clothes you don’t pay VAT because they’re exempt.

Sorry, I should clarify, as my own employer I do pay it to myself from my company. So my experience may not apply to people who just need to claim it as an expense for tax.

But.... nothing about Covid is fair.

Exactly. The government is not responsible for making sure no individual suffers any financial loss from a global pandemic that none of us saw coming. Let's leave the financial support to people who would be in poverty without it, not those who are no longer able to claim £000s a year in fuel costs they haven't incurred.

I’m not sure what the outrage is that people can claim a fiver a month off the taxman because they are paying out for expenses that are purely business related. It’s nothing new

The issue isn’t with the taxman, it’s with the employer who expects the employee to pay all the expenses of their business

Many, many people never buy coffees and lunches at work because it's unaffordable for them or because they work somewhere without cafes etc nearby. Agree this payment isn't the biggest priority when millions of self-employed are currently getting nothing but for goodness sake not everyone is in a priveledged position to normally splurge on meal deals or nice coffees everyday as some PPs are suggesting (despite others saying exactly this and pointing out that they aren't making any such savings).

I wonder what I can claim to offset the costs of having two teenagers and a Yr 8 child (school) working from home while their Dad and I have to go to work? That includes heating costs, electricity for running laptops and, not least, paying for all the extra food they go through!

@BungleandGeorge

I don’t think people quite understand what this is. It’s not a £6 grant from the government! You can claim the VAT back on £6 of the expenses you incur. It’s your own money. Bit like if you buy kids clothes you don’t pay VAT because they’re exempt.

It's nothing to do with VAT - it's a relief against income tax.

You’re basically claiming back a bit of tax you’ve already paid.

I agree with you OP. A lot of people on here might be in city jobs where they would normally spend a lot of money on commuting and lunches. But some of us have jobs whereby we have very little spend on commuting etc. I live a 10 minute drive away from work, and always take lunch in. Working from home, especially during winter, isn’t cheap. A lot more money will go out on electric/gas etc than I would spend on petrol.

You’re claiming on P87 form, these are used for anyone claiming the tax back on work related expenses under £2500. Over £2500 goes on a tax return.

@SweetpeaMidnight

It is but I believe you can claim more, it just gets more complicated whereas the min £6 a wk is quick and easy

@SweetpeaMidnight you can claim the set rate of £6 per week OR you can look at your actual bills, work out how much pro rata relates to work and claim that instead

The entire nation is taking a hit far from ideal but it is what it is.

I am paying my staff an extra £26 per month WFH allowance, some some companies are doing what they can.

the allowance is for people that are taxed through PAYE
if you complete self assessment, is that for primarily PAYE earnings, or include self employment? if it's self employment, separate guidance on what you can claim.

I mostly walk to work, so no huge commuting costs to offset, but inevitably food out, more clothes etc, - and the time the journey takes.

The amount of people who say 'your saving on lunch and commuting...Blah blah' I'm in my 20s and I literally know no one in my office who buys lunch every day! A handful of people might one or two days a week. I probably bought lunch once every 3 months or so, normally I took a packed lunch or leftovers from home. I've saved a bit on my half hour commute each way every day but running a laptop 9 hours a day at home, heating, cups of tea and using my microwave/ hob in the day, going over my phone minutes every month as I no longer have my desk phone far out weights the £1.20 I get back!

However, if you claim expenses for using home as an office it can make you liable for both business rates and capital gains tax. You have to make sure that the room you use for work is dual purpose.
People always used to put a futon or bed settee in their home office so that they could claim it was a spare bedroom with a desk in it.