How to Claim Tax Relief on Working From Home Expenses

If your employer requires you to work from home at least part of the time, you may be entitled to tax relief on the extra costs — heating, electricity, and business phone calls — even if you're not self-employed. Many eligible employees never claim it.

Who qualifies

You can claim tax relief for additional household costs if you have to work from home on a regular basis, either because your employer doesn't have an office, or your job requires you to live far from it. You generally cannot claim if you choose to work from home when your employer does provide a suitable office — that distinction matters for eligibility.

HMRC offers a flat rate of £6 a week (£26 a month) without needing to keep receipts, or you can claim the exact extra costs you've incurred if they're higher, provided you can evidence them with bills.

How much it's actually worth

The relief works by reducing the amount of income you pay tax on, not by refunding your bills directly. A basic-rate (20%) taxpayer claiming the flat £6 weekly rate gets back roughly £1.20 a week, or about £62 a year; a higher-rate (40%) taxpayer gets around £2.40 a week, or about £124 a year. It's modest, but it's free money you're entitled to and simple to claim.

Checklist: how to claim

• Check you're eligible. Use HMRC's eligibility checker to confirm your situation qualifies before you apply.
• Decide flat rate or exact costs. The £6/week flat rate needs no evidence; claiming actual costs needs bills showing the increase caused specifically by working from home.
• Apply online via your Government Gateway account, by post, or through your Self Assessment return if you already file one.
• Backdate if you missed previous years. You can claim for the previous four tax years if you were eligible and didn't claim at the time.
• Update your tax code. Once approved, HMRC usually adjusts your tax code so relief is applied automatically going forward, rather than as a one-off payment.
• Re-check each year. Eligibility and amounts can change if your working arrangement changes, so don't assume last year's claim still applies without confirming.

International comparison

The UK's position for employees is actually more generous than the US right now. Since the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and its later 2025 successor, US employees (W-2 workers) can no longer deduct home-office expenses at all — the deduction is now restricted to the self-employed, freelancers and small business owners filing a Schedule C, who can use a simplified $5-per-square-foot method up to 300 square feet or claim actual costs. Self-employed people in the UK claim working-from-home costs differently too — through business expenses on their Self Assessment return, using HMRC's own simplified flat rates for hours worked at home, rather than the employee relief described here.

Key Numbers

• £6 a week — flat-rate relief available without receipts
• 4 years — how far back you can backdate a claim
• $5 per square foot — the US simplified method rate, for comparison, capped at 300 sq ft

Sources

• Claim tax relief for your job expenses: working from home — GOV.UK
• Simplified option for home office deduction — IRS.gov
• Home Office Tax Deduction: Work From Home Write-Offs in 2026 — Kiplinger

Educational content only — not financial advice.