Who wants to pay too much tax? No one, right? Well, if you’re working from home and not claiming expenses, you will be doing just that. And what a horrible thought that is, right? In this episode of Whiteboard Thursday,
Nick Campion walks you through 7 ‘must-claim’ allowable expenses to lower your tax bill. So, if you are a sole trader, a limited company, or an employee working from home – check this video out
Transcription
Hi there, it’s Nicholas Campion here from 1st Formations. Welcome to another episode of Whiteboard Thursday, where we provide advice on a wide range of business and company matters.
So, if you want to keep up-to-date with our insights, advice, and inspiration, then hit that subscribe button. But for now, let’s get started!
Today, I want to walk you through how you can lower your personal tax bill while working from home with 7 ‘must-claim’ allowable expenses, regardless of whether you are working as a sole trader, a limited company or as an employee of another company.
But first things first: let’s explain what we mean by “allowable expenses”.
Allowable expenses are the essential costs that you need to spend to keep your business up and running. Fortunately, HMRC recognises this, and so allowable expenses are tax-deductible. That’s why they let you offset them against your annual tax bill.
You can claim these expenses in a couple of different ways:
If you’re self-employed and you complete a Self Assessment tax return every year, you’ll be able to tally up your allowable expenses for the year on your return. The total value of those expenses will then be subtracted from your business revenues for the year. The number that’s left is considered your profit – and HMRC will normally only tax you based on that profit.
For example, let’s say you’re a sole trader and you made £60,000, but you were able to claim £15,000 worth of allowable expenses. This means HMRC will only ask you to pay tax on £45,000 for that tax year.
But it’s really important that you keep records and receipts of all your business expenses. You don’t have to send those records in with your Self Assessment return, but you do need to have them stored away in a safe place just in case HMRC ever contacts you and asks for proof of your expenses.
If you are an employee and you work from home on a regular basis, either part or all of the week, you will normally be able to claim tax relief for the extra household costs that you’re going to incur.
This includes a lot of the same expenses you might fill in on a Self Assessment form, such as heating, electricity, metered water, and business phone calls.
To make a claim – you’ve got two options:
- You can choose to claim £6.00 a week (£26/month or £312/year) from 6 April 2020 onward, and you won’t be expected to keep evidence of your extra costs; or
- You can claim the exact amount of extra costs you’ve had to pay. But if you go for this option, you’ll need to keep evidence like receipts or invoices.
The government has a useful ‘Check if you can claim’ form on the GOV.UK website to help you work out if you are eligible to claim.
Before you start the claim process, you should ensure you have to hand:
- A recent payslip or P60
- Your National Insurance Number
- Your mobile phone
The ‘Check if you can claim’ form takes a couple of minutes to fill in – at which point you will be asked to create your Government Gateway ID (if you do not already have one). If you don’t have one, just complete the simple steps when prompted and you’ll have your ID number in just a few minutes.
OK, once you have your Government Gateway ID number, you will be able to make your claim. Simply answer the questions on the claim form as appropriate, and once you have submitted it, HMRC will usually make any adjustments needed through your tax code to provide you with the required tax relief.
If you are claiming for working from home expenses for previous years, bear in mind that you must claim within 4 years of the end of the tax year in which you spent the money.
OK: so we’ve covered what allowable expenses are and how to claim them. Now let’s talk about what you should be claiming.
Straight in at number 1 is your mortgage interest or rent
Costs that are associated with your business premises have historically always been tax-deductible, right? Well, it works the exact same way if you’re self-employed and your business premises or office happens to be in your home.
If you rent your home or pay a mortgage, HMRC allows you to claim a portion of that cost as an allowable business expense on your annual tax return. The trick here is that you’ve got to work out how much of your mortgage or rent counts as an allowable expense.
For example, let’s say you’re working from home in a five-room house. For tax purposes, HMRC doesn’t count a kitchen or a bathroom as a room. If you’re using one room exclusively for work purposes, that means you’re using 20% of the rooms in your house for your business.
As a result, you can then claim 20% of your annual mortgage interest (but not capital repayments) or rental costs on your tax return. Unfortunately, however, this expense is not available to company directors, nor to employees working from home.
Number 2 is your heating and electricity bills
Your energy bills will probably rise if you’re staying at home all day to work. Fortunately, you can claim a portion of those costs, too.
You’d normally calculate the percentage of your bills that you can claim as allowable expenses in the same way that you’d tally up your mortgage or rental claim. Simply calculate what percentage of your heating and electricity goes towards supporting your work environment.
For example, if you spend £150.00 a month to power your home, and you use one of five rooms in your home for work-only purposes, £30.00 a month of your energy bills would be considered an allowable expense.
Number 3 – your broadband bills
Let’s face it: in this day and age, it’s almost impossible to work from home without reliable broadband. It’s how a lot of office workers dial in and carry out their daily tasks, and it’s how a lot of small business owners advertise and make sales. That makes broadband a business essential – which also means that it’s an allowable expense in the eyes of HMRC.
But just like energy bills and your mortgage or rent, there’s a catch: you’re only allowed to claim for broadband expenses that are directly related to your work. So if you already had broadband prior to working from home, and you still use it often in a personal capacity, that means you can’t claim for your entire monthly bill.
You can only claim for the proportion of that bill that is directly linked to work.
Coming in at number 4 is your council tax bill
OK, so here’s one that a lot of self-employed people forget to claim when they’re working from home. If your business premises is your home and you’ve got to pay council tax, that makes council tax a necessary business expense – or at least, a part of your council tax.
Again, HMRC operates the same rule on your council tax bill that it would apply to your utilities or mortgage. You can claim council tax as an allowable expense, but only insofar as it applies to your self-employed work.
The easiest way to determine this is to go back to the number of rooms scenario, that is, identify how many rooms you’re using exclusively for work purposes and then apply that to your council tax bill.
For example, if you’re paying £100 per month in council tax and you’re using one of four rooms in your flat exclusively as a home office, that means a quarter of your council tax bill is tax-deductible.
So far so good? Here’s number 5 – your mobile phone bill
Now that you’re working from home, are you using your mobile phone to make calls to employees, your boss, or clients? If that’s the case, you should be claiming part of your mobile phone bill as an allowable business expense.
People generally choose to go one of two routes when they claim for mobile phone use. They can either:
- claim only for the percentage of use that is only work-related; or,
- Set up a work-only mobile contract and claim that contract in its entirety.
Again, tread carefully here. If HMRC ever asks to see proof that your £50.00 a month mobile bill is for work purposes and they can clearly tell you’ve been using it for personal use, you might land yourself in hot water.
Number 6 – magazine subscriptions
Ok: so when you’re working in an office with other professionals, you may pass around trade publications. But when you’re working remotely, you can’t exactly pass around a magazine.
Fortunately, if you choose to subscribe to a work-related magazine on your own and pay the bill for it, the entire cost of that subscription becomes tax-deductible. But it’s important to note that you can’t claim a trade publication subscription if your boss has paid for it on your behalf.
And finally number 7 – contents insurance
A lot of homeowners take out contents insurance to protect items in their homes from loss or damage. But did you know you can claim a portion of the cost of your insurance policy back as an allowable business expense?
That’s right: if you’re working from home, a portion of your contents insurance (and other kinds of property-related insurance) turns into a necessary business expense. But just like utilities or CPD courses, you can only claim for the portion of your insurance costs that are linked to your work or your business.
And, there you have it!
So we’ve covered 7 allowable expenses that you can (and should) be claiming on your Self Assessment tax return wherever possible if you’re working from home.
You can even claim many of these expenses if you’re employed by somebody else and don’t submit a Self Assessment return. But the process works a little bit differently if you’re claiming these expenses as an employee.
Either way, all of these expenses are worth exploring. You’d be shocked at how quickly they all add up and how much they can lower your annual tax bill.
But don’t forget to keep records and receipts, and don’t take all of these allowable expenses for granted. Every once in a while, HMRC will change the rules around certain expenses or how much you can claim for certain things like car mileage.
So, when in doubt, you should always consult an accountant or contact HMRC directly to make sure that the items you’re planning to claim for are indeed allowable expenses.
If you have any questions about what we’ve covered today, please ask in the comment section below and we’ll be sure to get straight back to you!
In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to our channel to get more tips and tricks on limited companies, reporting requirements, tax obligations, and more. We’re always happy to help, and we can’t wait to hear from you.
Until next time, Cheerio!
Join The Discussion
Comments (40)
Can I claim cleaning bills, eg a cleaner?
We hope you enjoyed the blog.
If you run your business from dedicated premises separate to your home (e.g. a rented office), there should be no issue claiming cleaning costs relating to that premises. If you run your business from your home, HMRC may challenge whether such expenditure has a dual purpose i.e. that it is not “wholly” and “exclusively” for the purpose of the business. Using a method of apportionment (e.g. based on the number of rooms in your house) may overcome this however, if you do consider using such a method, we suggest discussing with an accountant.
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Most useful and most detailed article out there with examples how to calculate things. Much appreciated. 5 stars!
Thank you so much for your generous feedback and the 5-star rating!
We are thrilled to hear that you found the article detailed and helpful, especially with the examples provided.
If you have any other questions or need further clarification, feel free to reach out anytime!
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Thanks for the valuable video, I got a lot of good info from it.
I recently started working from home as the sole director of my private limited company. I live in a 1 bedroom flat (1 bedroom, 1 living room, 1 bathroom) – my bedroom has a desk in it with monitor setup etc. but I also obviosuly sleep in the bedroom. So the bedroom isn’t used exclusively for work purposes. What proportion of my rent can I claim as tax deductable? Thank you
Thank you for your comment, K. Unfortunately for you, no part of your rent could be recognised as a business expense in your limited company. You may however be interested in the below video which focuses on limited companies:
https://www.1stformations.co.uk/blog/13-allowable-expenses-your-limited-company-isnt-claiming/
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Hello
My daughter has moved back to Australia and started a new job. Per her verbal agreement with her new employer, after three months of orientation, she will relocate interstate. In the meantime, she is renting an AirBnb flat and expenses are included in the daily charge. She is working from home 2 days a week. what, if anything can she claim for WFH?
Hi Rosemary,
Thank you for your comment. Unfortunately, we cannot advise on tax claims for Australian residents.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Hello!
I am just looking at allowable expenses as an employee, working from home – my employer requires me to work from home as they do not offer space to work within the support office (global company with all bar support teams working remote).
I use a room in my house as an office, which outside of normal working hours is a guest bedroom. I recently moved from a rental flat where my ‘office’ was part of the combine living/dining/kitchen area (proportioning costs based upon use of 33% of total space), and into a house that I own that has 4 rooms (proportioning costs based upon use of 25% of total space). I also do some sole-trader work outside of my employed role – but as this work is not done from my house allowances I am considering separately.
Am I correct that I can claim employed expenses as follows?
– Proportioned energy / broadband / telephone reflecting use for employed purposes.
– Proportioned council tax according to space used in each property
– Potentially proportioned rent previously and now mortgage interest but not capital (assume as room has dual purpose this would not affect CGT??).
– Potentially proportioned contents insurance.
I’m just a little confused as your post suggests these are allowable as ’employed working from home’ but other sources (including HMRC) suggest that the allowable expenses are more limited if employed regardless of if you have to work from home (ie they don’t mention council tax, mortgage interest or insurance).
Any advice appreciated!
Hi Mel,
Thank you so much for getting in touch. Please accept our sincerest apologies for not replying to your comment sooner.
If your employer does not reimburse you for the additional household expenses you incur as a direct result of regularly working from home, you can claim tax relief on these extra costs.
To be eligible to do this, you must be required to work from home under a homeworking arrangement in your employment contract, rather than choosing to work from home. From what you’ve said, it sounds like you are eligible because there is no option for you to work from your employer’s office.
As an employee, you are not entitled to the same extent of homeworking expenses as a self-employed person. Unfortunately, you cannot claim tax relief against your rent/mortgage, council tax, existing broadband access, fixed water rates, and home insurance.
You can only claim for additional costs of gas, electricity, metered water, and business phone calls.
We hope this answers your questions and provides clarity. Please do get back in touch if we can help with anything else.
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
I have just read a previous post saying ”HMRC allowable use of home as office figure ” is better to use as otherwise HMRC will deem your home as a business and can apply CGT to the proportion used as an office when you sell. Are you able to shed any light – is this only if you deduct a proportion of expenses such as council tax, rates such as fuel bills and mortage interest and if so is this if done over years ? To avoid this as I am newly self employed as a sole trader is it better to stick to the £6 per week – £26 per month rule for allowable use of home office figure? I am right that this would only apply to mortgage interest, rates, fuel bills and council Tax? Am I missing anything here?
Thanks for any clarity
Thank you for your kind enquiry, Neeta.
In general terms, there is a possibility that HMRC will classify your home as a business and apply CGT to the proportion used as an office when you sell. We would recommend seeking advice from a tax advisor/accountant as we are unable to provide financial advice as we are unregulated to do so.
We are sorry we are unable to be of further assistance.
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Hi,
I work full time from home as a rabbit boarding establishment. I have outbuildings in the garden and use two rooms inside my house. One room houses small animals and my bathroom is used for grooming rabbits. In this instance can I include the bathroom as a work space?
Thanks
Thank you for your kind enquiry. It is unlikely HMRC would allow a bathroom to be considered as a workspace, as in almost all cases a bathroom would be used solely for personal (non-work) related reasons. We would recommend you contact HMRC on 0300 200 3300 for further information.
We trust this information is of use to you.
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Hi,
This is a great article, thanks for sharing.
I am in a similar situation to Phil. I am an IT contractor (security tester) and work on an ad-hoc basis. These contracts are outside IR35 and have a limited company.
I also work part time for another firm (similar job) and receive renumeration for this job via PAYE.
I work from home (a flat with two bedrooms and a living room; one of the bedrooms is used exclusively by me for work). Although I live with a partner, the property is in my name and I pay all bills and mortgage.
Does this mean I can claim 1/3 of mortgage interest and bills?
Thanks,
J
Thank you for your kind enquiry, J.
The answer will depend on how often you use the rooms for work – i.e. how often you work from home and not ‘on location.’ Can you please advise this?
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Hi, I am working as a umbrella company, can I still claim back all the covered items in this article?
Kind regards
Paul
Thanks for your kind enquiry, Paul.
Do you mean you are working under an umbrella company?
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Hello, I am a sole trader delivering consulting services working from home. I share a flat with my partner where one of our three main rooms is my office. Is it correct that I can claim a full 1/3 of our rent, electricity & gas, water and broadband costs as expenses in my tax return?
I also had a 1 day a week part-time regular employment contract (i.e. covered by PAYE) during the year, which I report in the tax return. This work was also completed from home. In my capacity as a sole trader, I did average five days a week working for myself out of my office though as I often worked weekends.
I’d be really grateful for any advice. Many thanks.
Thank you for your kind enquiry, Phil.
What you could claim regarding your flat would be dependent on who the bills are issued to, who they are paid by, and whether your partner also uses the flat as an office. Based on what you have described, you may only be able to claim back 1/6 of the rent etc, if you split your bill payments with your partner.
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
I have a personal service company with a PO box address as I’m renting and I cannot have my home address as the company address. Can I still claim allowable expenses for rent, heating and electricity bills, broadband bills, and content insurance?
Thank you for your kind enquiry, Santiago. Your working from home expenses should not be affected by using a personal service company with a PO Box address – what is pertinent is where you actually work from and that you are able to prove it by way of utility bills, etc. Therefore you should still be able to claim allowable expenses for what you have listed.
We trust this information is of use to you.
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
My son is living with us and works from home and is obviously using more energy etc, However it is me that pays the bills. Can I claim tax relief because of this, or does he claim it and pay me the equivalent.
Thank you for your kind enquiry, Brian.
In general terms, if your son is not paying bills in his name, no one in your house will be able to claim tax relief based on him working at home, as the bills need to be in the name of the person claiming the relief.
We trust this information is of use.
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Hi, I’ve been working from home since the pandemic started and we subsequently outgrew our office space so I’m now employed to permanently work from home. I had previously claimed the WFH tax allowance of £312 but what you have outlined as allowable expenses in the article would be much more than that allowance.
How can I make a claim for expenses incurred since March 2020 being an employed person that works from home?
Thank you for your kind enquiry, Jamie.
Unfortunately, once you submit a Self Assessment Tax Return, you only have 3 days to make any amendments to it. After this time period, you will be unable to submit further tax claims for that period.
We trust this information is of use to you.
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
I didn’t submit a self assessment, I claimed tax relief for working from home which I was able to do without submitting a self assessment.
Thank you for clarifying Jamie.
We are unsure if you will be able to claim additional amounts of tax relief once you have claimed once – we would recommend you contact HMRC to clarify this, on 0300 200 3300
We are sorry we cannot be more help regarding the question you have raised.
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
I’d like to understand as a sole trader, now working from home, if part of my rent and bills can be claimed on the room used for work even though I do not have the luxury of a sperate work only space? My living room has become my office on a daily basis.
Thanks for taking the time to message. Yes, absolutely, from what you’ve said, you should be able to make a claim. You may find the below helpful:
https://www.gov.uk/expenses-if-youre-self-employed
https://www.gov.uk/simpler-income-tax-simplified-expenses/working-from-home
Please do let us know if you have any further questions.
Regards,
The 1st Formations Team
I live and work from my (eight useable rooms) home. It has a commercial mortgage on it which we pay monthly. Can I still claim 1/8 for my sole use office even though it is not a normal mortgage? Many thanks
Thanks for your kind enquiry, Kate.
In the first instance, can you please let us know if the property you are residing in which has a commercial mortgage on it is technically allowed to have people reside in it? Is it zoned as solely commercial and you should not really be living there, or is there an allowance?
Regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Hi, you state that you can claim a portion of mortgage payment and also mortgage interest. However another website says you can NOT Claim portion of capital mortgage payments, only a portion of the interest. Which is correct please??
Thank you for your kind enquiry, Georgina.
You can claim a portion of mortgage interest as an allowable expense, not capital mortgage payments. It states that capital repayments are not included in our blog article, but we will take it under advisement that we may need to edit this wording to make it clearer.
We trust this information is of use to you.
Regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Not the best advice.
Pity you did not mention the Capital Gains Tax that will fall due on that proportion of your home that you deem to be your office, if you claim for a proportion of your rent, rates , water , property insurance and mortgage interest costs, as being for business purposes. If you claim one sixth of your home as for business purposes, on the basis that 1 rom is your office and 5 other rooms are your private residence then depending on the number of years that you make this expense claim, when you sell your home HMRC will expect you apply capital gains tax to the one sixth area you have claimed for as an office.
You would be better considering the HMRC allowable use of home as office figure that they allow without it affecting the sale of your private residence.
Thank you for your valuable input John. We will now consider adding a caveat relating to homeowners, to make your point clear to our readers.
Regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Hello, loved the article and thanks for sharing all this information.
If I have a short form for SA Tax due to having a private pension (the only reason I do a self assessment tax) under what heading or where would I claim the items you mentioned above, please.
Thank you for your kind enquiry, Jennifer.
Allowable expenses can be claimed in section 2.5 of a short form Self Assessment (SA200).
We trust this information is of use to you.
Regards,
The 1st Formations Team
My son lives at home and works at home for his employers as his position is a home based job and so subsequently our bills have risen.
I have been told by the HMRC that he cannot claim for working from home because the bills are in my name. Is there any way round this ?
Many thanks
Thank you for your kind enquiry, Debra.
In general terms, the only way to resolve this situation would be to switch the accounts to your son’s name going forward, so he is the account holder. This would enable you to claim for working from home expenses going forward. However, you would not be able to make a retrospective claim as HMRC have already ruled against this due to the fact that he is not presently paying for bills, and therefore cannot claim against those bills.
I trust this information is of use to you.
Regards,
The 1st Formations Team