Martin Lewis has issued an urgent warning to Brits working from home that could allow them to claim £280 in tax rebates. Since the 2020 lockdown, employers have been able to claim for increased costs, such as heat and electricity, which would allow home workers to claim up to £140 a year.
In a recent blog post, the Money Saving Expert said the “microservice” was driven by the pandemic, as many offices were forced to close due to lockdown measures. He said HMRC had told him employees working from home could claim relief if their workplaces required them to continue working from home.
(Image: ITV)
He added that the relief also applied to anyone who had been forced to work from home while isolating, whether because they had contracted Covid or whether they had been pinged by Test and Trace.
In the post, he said: “To claim the tax relief you must have, and declare that you have had, specific extra costs due to working from home. Yet apportioning extra costs, such as heating and electricity, is tough. Due to that, there is essentially a flat rate of £6 a week available to you.”
In order to claim the money, he said, employees should take advantage of the tax-free £6 a week employers can give workers. If firms aren’t doing this, he continued, Brits can claim tax relief on the £6 a week instead. He explained there was no need for claimants to keep receipts or prove information.
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In order to claim the full £280, Martin said employees can use the microservice provided they have a Government Gateway ID. Although he added this is easy to set up along the way. Anyone who has been made to work from home between April 6, 2020 and April 5 2022 will be able to claim the money via the microservice.
Those who have claimed for 2020 must claim again, he explained. The relief will come in the form of a tax code change, which tells employers how much tax to take. As for whether the process will continue in future, Martin said he was unsure – and urged fellow money-savers to keep up with his newsletters for latest updates.
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