Money Owed · HMRC

On 6 April 2026, last month, the tax relief for non-reimbursed homeworking expenses was abolished (Source: GOV.UK policy paper: Removal of tax relief on non-reimbursed homeworking expenses, 2025.). That removes the relief going forward. It does not remove the four-year backdate window for anyone who was required to work from home in any year since 2022-23.

The eligibility test is narrow. Voluntary hybrid working does not qualify. The employer must have required the work to be done from home, with no employer-provided alternative workplace. Anyone who fits that description for any of the tax years 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 or 2025-26 has until 5 April 2030 to claim. The amount is small (£62.40 a year at basic rate, £124.80 at higher rate), so a maximum backclaim is £248 at basic rate or £499 at higher rate.

The harder question is whether you actually qualified. HMRC has stated that more than half of WFH claims it has checked under the post-2022 rules were ineligible (Source: GOV.UK policy paper, 2025.). That is partly why the relief is being removed.

Uniform tax relief, formally Flat Rate Expenses, applies to workers whose job requires a uniform or specialist clothing they have to maintain themselves. HMRC keeps a list of occupations and per-occupation flat rates (Source: HMRC Employment Income Manual EIM32712.). The default is £60 a year (basic-rate refund: £12). Nurses and midwives are listed at £125 a year. Police constables to chief inspectors at £140. Airline pilots at £1,022. Each year is its own relief, so the four-year backdate compounds: a nurse who has never claimed is owed £625, a pilot who has never claimed is owed up to £5,110.

Professional subscriptions tax relief lets members of professional bodies deduct their subscription costs from their taxable income, where the membership is required for the job (Source: HMRC Employment Income Manual EIM32880; Section 344 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003; HMRC List 3 of approved professional bodies.). The HMRC-approved list runs to around 4,000 organisations, including the RCN, BMA, IET, ICE, ICAEW, ACCA, RICS, the Law Society, the CIPD and most other major UK professional institutions. The relief comes back at the rate of tax you pay (20%, 40% or 45%).

HMRC does not publish claimant counts for either of these two, so the unclaimed pile per relief is a derived estimate. The order of magnitude is £30-£50 million per year for each. Smaller than the headline two reliefs but more occupation-specific.

None of the five reliefs requires a tax return on its own, although the higher-rate pension top-up does if you don’t already file Self Assessment. The other four are short online or paper forms, free of charge:

• Marriage Allowance: apply at gov.uk/marriage-allowance. Five minutes online if you have both partners’ National Insurance numbers handy.
• Higher-rate pension top-up: through your Self Assessment return, or by writing to HMRC to ask for the extra relief if you don’t file Self Assessment. The same four-year backdate rule applies.
• Uniform tax relief: Form P87, or the new GOV.UK online flat-rate journey live since 31 October 2024.
• Professional subscriptions: Form P87 or your Self Assessment return.
• WFH (closing window): Form P87 or Self Assessment, before 5 April 2030 for tax years 2022-23 to 2025-26.

Untap reads your situation and tells you which apply. Forward the relevant context to your Untap inbox, or use the one-off wizard. We don’t file the claim. That part stays with you, on HMRC’s portal or your tax return.

The full how-to lives in our guides: Marriage Allowance, Working from Home tax relief, Uniform tax relief, and Professional Subscriptions.