HMRC is encouraging employees that have been told by their employer to work from home during the pandemic, to claim tax relief via a portal it has set up on its website. The portal was launched at the beginning of October and within two weeks HMRC had received over 54,800 claims.
Since 6 April, employers have been able to pay their staff up to £6 a week tax-free to cover additional costs if they have to work from home, even in cases where an employee splits their time between home and the office. Those employees that have not received the working from home expenses payment direct from their employer are now able to apply for tax relief directly from HMRC.
Commenting on the development Karl Khan, HMRC’s Interim Director General of Customer Services, said: “We want everyone to get the money that they are entitled to, so we’ve made the online service as easy to use as we can – it takes just a few minutes to make a claim.”
The HMRC portal can be found at www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home.