Working From Home And Claiming Tax Relief (?)

[Solo]

This is going to sound odd, but I'm a low earner, work 22 hours a week, I earn under the £12,500 threshold for tax purposes. I have 1 child at home and get WTC's and CTC's. Last year during the first lockdown, I worked from home for around 10/12 weeks, so was using all my home facilities for my work. Looking into the whole claiming for having worked from home because I was required to, I have run into a wall because I can't find a way of claiming due to not paying tax. Does anyone have any insight into this? It seems a bit unfair that I don't earn enough to pay tax, but I have to fund my work by using my own gas, electric, wifi etc, but if I earned £50K, I could claim it (but, wouldn't necessarily need the tax relief. Can anyone shed light onto this, please?

You can’t claim tax relief on tax you haven’t paid - surely you’re not actually surprised by that?

It’s barely anything anyway - for a basic rate tax payer it is 20% of £4 per week (2019/20 tax year) or 20% of £6 per week (2020/21 tax year). So 80p per week/£1.20 per week.

It’s tax relief
You don’t pay tax so won’t apply

I’ve not bothered tbh

I thought there was something this year that even if you work for home for even just one day, you can claim something??

It’s still tax relief though @PamDenick. You get back a very small amount of the tax you’ve paid via a change to your tax code. You can’t get tax relief if you haven’t paid tax. Or to look at it another way, your tax rate is 0%, so you’re getting 0% of £4/£6 per week back, i.e. £0.

You don't get relief from a tax you haven't paid.

No, that's what I thought, but surely there is some other way of claiming back something to balance the bills? After all, to some extent, it leaves me out of pocket. And I'm definitely not alone.

I feel the same @Solo - as we are using More electric and heating etc.

@Solo - does this apply to you?

[quote HarryLimeFoxtrot]@Solo - does this apply to you?[/quote]
Yes, well I hope so, but I don't think I got the extra £ 20 pm over the past year, so who knows.

*£20 pw not month.

The alternative is that your employer pays or contributes to your expenses.
Part of the tax relief claim is a statement that you have not already been compensated for it

Good luck OP. I'm in the same boat.
Where I work has an agile worker policy including contributing to home working expenses.
I've requested this and explained why.... In January 🙄constant chasing resulting in nothing so far.
I'm the only pt in the team and I know all the ft have done the tax reclaim.
I may pursue discrimination claim as I still am out of pocket but being ignored and it pisses me off tbh.

@Solo

*£20 pw not month.

It’s £62 per year for standard tax, £124 for the higher band

Your taxable allowance gets adjusted and you pay slightly less tax
blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2020/04/martin-lewis--working-from-home-due-to-coronavirus--claim-p6-wk-/

@dizzywizz It’s crap but think of it this way - did your employer previously pay for your commute, your meals while at work, your clothing (unless it’s a uniform)? I’m guessing not so there’s not much to be done.

[quote BlackCatsRule88]@dizzywizz It’s crap but think of it this way - did your employer previously pay for your commute, your meals while at work, your clothing (unless it’s a uniform)? I’m guessing not so there’s not much to be done.[/quote]
But nor did all the full-time employees, but they can claim the tax relief (because I emailed them all at my place of work to tell them to). Just seems a little unbalanced,

You're not worse off than tax payers as wtc recipients had a special uplift this year of £20 a week to see them through Covid, and are getting a one off £500payment. So actually far more than the tax relief offered.

My comment was for @dizzywizz

From what you’ve said on your situation there’s two issues at play, one being the tax relief and the second being the equal treatment. I’m sure someone with proper legal knowledge will be along who can explain it better than me but equal doesn’t have to mean the same.

Yep, point taken, but I didn't get the additional £20pw.

Thought it was just UC who got the £20pw not TCs

@TheDrsDocMartens

Thought it was just UC who got the £20pw not TCs

Don't know, but I didn't get it and have no idea if I'll be entitled to the £500 lump sum. They don't necessarily make things easy to find out.

If you think about it, unemployed people are at home. Using power and WiFi looking for jobs. Eating at home. There aren't many more costs associated with working from home. Phone call, special equipment, desk etc should be by the employer.

Unemployed people could be out walking the dog or training for a marathon. They aren't tied to the house like someone who is working from home is...

@TheDrsDocMartens

Thought it was just UC who got the £20pw not TCs

Nope, it was for WTCs too. It's scaled so it's ' up to' £20, but your amount should have gone up by something. www.gov.uk/government/news/increase-to-working-tax-credits-what-this-means.

You get the £500 at the beginning next month if you claimed WTCs on March 2nd. It's all here. www.gov.uk/guidance/new-one-off-500-payment-for-working-households-receiving-tax-credits

Ah I get CTC but not WTC. They go off my pre Covid income and I’ve not worked most of the year.

@DianaT1969

If you think about it, unemployed people are at home. Using power and WiFi looking for jobs. Eating at home. There aren't many more costs associated with working from home. Phone call, special equipment, desk etc should be by the employer.

I’m self employed so no employer to provide everything. Lot of employers work on ‘it’s only temporary’ so not providing full equipment/desks etc