Rules for claiming working from home expenses tightened for 2022-23

During the pandemic and various lockdowns, many people worked from home and were therefore able to claim the £6 per week working from home tax relief. Don’t forget to claim this in your 2021/22 tax return if you meet the qualifying conditions.

If the relief has been claimed in 2020/21 and 2021/22, it is likely that HMRC could add the claim to the employees PAYE code, so relief is given automatically through payroll in this tax year. However, the rules have been tightened since the pandemic, so for 2022/23 it has become much more difficult to qualify for the relief.

For 2022/23, in order to claim working from home tax relief the employer must specifically require the employee to work from a home office, for example because their job is contractually 100% a home office role. Whether to work at home or in the office must not be optional for the employee.

For those where the office lease may have been surrendered during the lockdown period and they will be working from home for the foreseeable future, the relief can therefore still be claimed. However, in the more common scenario where individuals have returned to work on a flexible basis, partly in the office, partly working from home, they will no longer qualify for working from home tax relief.

If the relief is included in your PAYE code therefore, you will need to update this.

If you have any questions about working from home tax relief, please contact Martin Back on 023 8046 1232.