Martin Lewis tax relief deals: How working from home for just one day can entitle you to a year’s worth of tax relief

Martin Lewis has divulged a new tax relief deal that has been revealed by gov.uk for those who have been working from home.

On his Thursday evening show, The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, the money saving expert revealed to viewers that they could claim a year’s worth of tax relief if they have worked from home for just one day throughout the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

“If you’re required to work from home and you have extra expenses for doing so and you're an employee you can claim the working from home tax relief,” says Martin.

Those working as employees of a company can save from £60 in tax for the whole year and up to £125, depending on what your tax code is, simply from working from home for just one day.

Read on to see how to claim your year’s worth of tax relief…

Martin Lewis HMRC advice: tax relief for working from home

While some have already been claiming tax relief for working from home throughout the last few months, Martin Lewis has revealed that the HMRC has now simplified the system due to the high demand it has been seeing.

You can now claim a year’s worth of tax relief if you have been required to work from home for just one day since the 6th April and it has led to higher expenses at home.

So what exactly does this mean and how can you go about it?

Who can claim tax relief for working from home?

Anyone who is an employee of a company and who has been required to work from home for at least one day since 6th April can now claim a year’s worth of tax relief, provided they’ve had additional expenses as a result of working from home.

It doesn’t matter what your job is or what industry you work in, if you have been required throughout the lockdown period, but have not been provided a place of work by your employer (i.e. your office has been closed or employees have been asked not to come in), then you are eligible to claim the tax relief.

This even includes anybody who has been required to work from home due to an obligation to shield, as Martin advises that the service is also available if “the government required you to work from home”.

To claim the year’s worth of tax relief from the HMRC the criteria are:

• You have worked from home for at least one day since 6th April
• You have been required by either your employer or the government to work from home for at least one day, and not just done so out of choice
• You have had additional expenses (i.e. increased electricity bill) due to working from home

How much money can the tax relief save you?

You can claim a rate of £6 per week with the new HMRC microservice, which means that you can claim tax relief on £6 of your weekly earnings.

For those on a basic 20% taxpayer rate, you will save £1.20 per week, which equates to £62.40 per year. Or those on a higher 40% taxpayer rate will save £2.40 per week, equating to £124.80.

If you think that your surplus costs from working from home come to more than £6 per week, you can claim more, however this will require you to provide detailed evidence and can be a very long and drawn-out process.

How to claim HMRC tax relief for working from home

You can claim HMRC’s tax relief for working from home through their new microservice on gov.uk.

Click here: Claim tax relief for your job expenses

Martin advises that you only have to claim once to get the year’s worth of tax relief, even if you have had a period in between work-from-home stints where you have worked from your office.

"We recognise that the working-from-home situation is very fluid this year, so we're accepting claims for the full year's expenses,” the HMRC told Martin.

“That includes even if people have only worked from home for some of the year, to avoid needing to contact us if you have to work from home again."