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Working From Home tax relief

HMRC's Working From Home tax relief is worth £6 a week of additional tax-free allowance for any employee whose job genuinely requires them to work from home. That works out to about £62 a year for a basic-rate taxpayer or £125 for a higher-rate taxpayer. The rule changed in April 2022: home working by choice no longer qualifies, only home working that is required by your employer (because there is no office, or because your role is remote-by-design). You can still backdate qualifying years up to four tax years on a P87 claim.

Last updated April 2026

A small wooden desk by a kitchen window with a closed laptop, notebook, plant, and mug.

What the relief is

Working From Home tax relief gives you an additional £6 a week of tax-free income to cover the extra household costs of working at home. It is set out in section 336 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 and explained in HMRC's Employment Income Manual at EIM32790.

The relief is calculated against your marginal rate of income tax. £6 a week is £312 a year, so the actual saving is 20 per cent of that for a basic-rate taxpayer (£62.40) or 40 per cent for a higher-rate taxpayer (£124.80). Additional-rate taxpayers save 45 per cent (£140.40).

At a glance

Rate
£6 per week
Basic rate saving
~£62 per year
Higher rate saving
~£125 per year
Backdate
Up to four tax years
Qualifying rule
Required to work from home (post-Apr 2022)
Cost to claim
Free, on gov.uk

Who qualifies (the post-2022 test)

Three conditions, all of which must be true for the tax year:

  1. You are an employee (PAYE), not self-employed.
  2. Your employer requires you to work from home. The most common qualifying reasons are: the employer has no office for your role, your contract specifies remote-only, or your role's duties cannot be done elsewhere.
  3. Your employer does not already pay you a working-from-home allowance covering these costs (under ITEPA 2003 s.316A).

How much you actually get

The £6 a week flat rate, applied to the qualifying weeks in the tax year. The saving depends on your tax band:

  • Basic rate (20%): £62.40 a year
  • Higher rate (40%): £124.80 a year
  • Additional rate (45%): £140.40 a year

If you only worked from home for part of the year (started a remote role partway through, for example), HMRC pro-rates by the qualifying weeks.

How to claim it yourself

Two routes. If you do not file Self Assessment:

  1. Sign in to your Personal Tax Account on gov.uk.
  2. Submit form P87 (the online "tax relief for expenses of employment" service).
  3. Confirm the years you want to claim for and the basis (the "required to work from home" tickbox).
  4. HMRC adjusts your tax code for the current year and pays previous-year refunds by cheque or bank transfer.

If you file Self Assessment, claim the relief in the Employment pages of your return (boxes 17 and 20). Do not claim it in both places.

Backdating four years

The standard four-year rule under the Taxes Management Act 1970 section 43 applies. As of April 2026 the open years are 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25, and 2025/26. The 2021/22 year is the last where the relaxed pandemic rule applies (qualified for the whole year if you worked from home for any part of it because of COVID), and it falls out of scope on 5 April 2026.

The traps people fall into

  • Claiming when home working is optional. The biggest source of HMRC rejections post-2022. If your employer has an office and tolerates remote working but does not require it, you fail.
  • Double dipping with employer allowance. If your employer pays you a tax-free allowance for working from home (under ITEPA 2003 s.316A), you cannot also claim the £6-a-week relief.
  • Paying an agent a percentage. Several firms will offer to file a P87 for 25 to 40 per cent of any refund. The form takes ten minutes on your Personal Tax Account and is free.
  • Claiming for self-employment. The £6-a-week flat rate is for employees only. Self-employed people use simplified expenses or actual costs on Self Assessment.

How Untap helps

Talk to Nell, our voice agent, and she runs the post-2022 eligibility test against your job, then deep-links you to the right gov.uk form with the years that are still open. We nudge you through the basic-rate vs higher-rate calculation but the form itself is yours; we never file P87 for anyone.

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Questions readers actually ask

My employer says I can work from home but does not require it. Can I claim?
No. Since 6 April 2022 the relief only applies when you are required to work from home as a condition of your role, either because the employer has no office for your role or because your role is contractually remote. Hybrid by choice does not qualify, even if you do most of your work at home.
What counts as "required" by HMRC?
HMRC's Employment Income Manual EIM32790 sets out the test. Required means that you must perform substantive duties at home, the duties cannot reasonably be performed elsewhere, and the requirement is not optional. A "we let you" arrangement fails the test; an "this role has no office" arrangement passes.
I worked from home during the pandemic. Are those years still claimable?
2020/21 and 2021/22 had a relaxed rule: if you worked from home for any part of the year because of COVID, you could claim for the full year. That rule ended on 5 April 2022. You can still backdate 2021/22 if you have not yet claimed; 2020/21 is now outside the four-year window.
Can I claim more than the £6 per week flat rate?
In principle yes. If you have evidence of higher actual costs (the additional gas, electricity, water, business calls, and metered broadband attributable to work) you can claim those instead. In practice the evidence requirements make it not worth the effort for most people, and the flat-rate route is what HMRC accepts without query.
I am self-employed. Does this apply to me?
No, this is the employee relief. Self-employed people use the simplified expenses scheme on Self Assessment, which gives a flat rate by hours worked at home each month, or alternatively claim a proportion of actual household bills.

Related guides

This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. Always read the scheme's own rules before sending a claim.