Sarah Laing looks at how employees may be able to claim tax and NIC-free expenses for working from home.
No tax liability arises where employers make payments to employees for reasonable additional household expenses, which the employee incurs in carrying out duties of the employment at home under ‘homeworking arrangements’.
What are homeworking arrangements?
These are arrangements between the employee and the employer under which the employee regularly performs some or all of the duties of the employment at home. There is no requirement for any part of the employee's home to be used exclusively for the purposes of the employment – in fact, if any part of the home is used exclusively for work, problems could arise on the future sale of the house as part of the capital gains tax exemption for gains on private residences may be lost.
HMRC have stated that they will accept that homeworking arrangements exist where:
- there are arrangements between the employer and the employee; and
- the employee works at home regularly under those arrangements.
HMRC guidance also advises that:
“the arrangements need not be in writing but usually will be. They do not need to apply to all employees. The exemption does not apply where an employee works at home informally and not by arrangement with the employer. For example, it will not apply where an employee simply takes work home in the evenings. It applies where an employee works at home by arrangement with the employer instead of working on the employer's premises.”
HMRC accept that the ‘regularly’ condition is met if working at home is frequent or follows a pattern. The fact that the days spent at home vary from week to week is not a bar to claiming the exemption.
Reasonable household expenses
‘Household expenses’ are defined as expenses connected with the day-to-day running of the employee's home. The exemption applies to additional household expenses, and HMRC have given the following guidance:
“Typically this will include the additional costs of heating and lighting the work area or the metered cost of increased water use. There might also be increased charges for Internet access, home contents insurance or business telephone calls. Where working at home leads to a liability for business rates the additional cost incurred can also be included.
The additional household costs must be reasonable and must be incurred in carrying out the duties. This excludes costs that would be the same whether or not the employee works at home, for example mortgage interest, rent, council tax or water rates. It also excludes expenses that put the employee into a position to work at home, for example building alterations or the cost of furniture or office equipment.”
Amount of exemption
To minimise the need for record-keeping, employers can pay up to £4 per week (£208 per year) without supporting evidence of the costs the employee has incurred. If an employer pays more than that amount, the exemption will still be available but the employer must provide supporting evidence that the payment is wholly in respect of additional household expenses incurred by the employee in carrying out his duties at home.
If an employer wishes to pay more than the guideline rate per week tax-free, then it is recommended that the employer should agree in advance with HMRC a scale rate. Failing that, records will need to be kept of the actual additional costs incurred by each employee.
Practical Tip:
If you’re an employee and you work from home, you need to consider your tax position if your employer agrees to pay for your home telephone bills. You can claim tax relief only for the cost of your business calls, and not on the line rental or other fixed charges. If your employer reimburses you for the cost of your private telephone calls, this money is classed as a taxable benefit and you may end up having to pay tax on it.
