Who Is Eligible
To claim working from home tax relief, you must: be an employee (not self-employed — sole traders have different rules); be required by your employer to work from home — either because your employer has no office, because your home is your designated workplace in your contract, or because your job genuinely cannot be done at an employer's premises; and have incurred extra costs as a result of working from home (e.g. higher electricity or broadband costs). You cannot claim if: your employer offers you an office but you choose to work from home; you use a home office for personal projects outside of employed work; you are a company director working from home (you can instead pay yourself a tax-free home working allowance through your company).
The £6 Per Week Flat Rate
HMRC allows employees to claim a flat rate of £6 per week (£26 per month, £312 per year) without needing to keep records or provide evidence of actual additional costs. For a basic rate (20%) taxpayer, this generates tax relief of £1.20 per week (£62.40/year). For a higher rate (40%) taxpayer, the relief is £2.40 per week (£124.80/year). This is not a cash payment — it is tax relief, which reduces your tax bill via an adjusted tax code. If your actual additional costs are genuinely higher than £6/week, you can claim the real amount instead, but you will need to provide evidence (utility bills, receipts, a clear calculation of the business proportion of household costs).
How to Claim Online
The fastest way to claim is via your HMRC Personal Tax Account at gov.uk/personal-tax-account. Log in with your Government Gateway credentials, navigate to "Check your Income Tax" or "Claim a tax refund", and look for the employment expenses section. Select "Working from home" and enter the number of weeks you worked from home in the current year. HMRC then adjusts your tax code — your employer implements the new code and you receive the relief in your monthly pay, usually within 4–8 weeks of the claim.
Backdating Your Claim — Up to £500 Back
You can backdate working from home relief for up to four tax years. If you were required to work from home in 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25 and have not yet claimed, you could receive a lump sum refund. At basic rate (20%), four years of claims returns approximately £249.60. At higher rate (40%), approximately £499.20. Backdated refunds from prior years are paid as a lump sum to your bank account rather than as an adjusted tax code, since those years are closed. Claim backdated years via your Personal Tax Account or by contacting HMRC.
"You can backdate working from home relief for up to four tax years"
Self-Employed Working from Home Rules
Self-employed people and sole traders can claim home working costs differently — through their Self Assessment tax return rather than via HMRC's employee relief system. You can use the simplified flat rate (£10/month for 25–50 hours worked from home per month; £18/month for 51–100 hours; £26/month for over 100 hours) or calculate actual additional costs using the proportion of your home used for work. Many sole traders under-claim here. If you use one room exclusively and regularly for business, you can claim a proportion of all costs — mortgage interest, rent, utilities, insurance, broadband — based on the number of rooms and hours used.
Employer Payments vs Tax Relief
Your employer can pay you up to £6 per week (£26/month) tax-free to cover additional home working costs — this is separate from the employee tax relief. If your employer already pays you a home working allowance of £6/week or more, you cannot also claim the tax relief, as HMRC assumes your costs are already covered. If your employer pays less than £6/week, you can claim tax relief on the difference. Most employers do not pay this allowance, in which case you can claim the full relief yourself. Check your payslip or employment contract to see if any home working allowance is included.
The key eligibility test is whether your employer REQUIRES you to work from home — not whether you prefer to. Since many offices reopened post-Covid, HMRC has tightened enforcement. If your employer has a workplace you could use but you choose to work from home, you are not eligible for the relief. For 2020/21 and 2021/22, HMRC relaxed the rules and allowed claims for anyone who worked from home at all during those years due to Covid — but this exception no longer applies from 2022/23 onwards.
Finance Motion — General guidance only.
Not regulated financial advice.