Claiming for Home Office and Rented Workspace

[trebor123]

Hi,

For the past year, I have been renting deskspace in a shared office environment and I have also being working from home. Roughly speaking, I worked 2 days a week in the rented officespace and worked 3 days a week from home.

My question is, can I claim both the rented office space as an expense and also claim part of my residential rent as an expense as I was working from home (based on hmrcs guidelines for how to calculate home office expenses)? If my home office took up say 20% of my home, could I take 20% of my monthly rent and claim 3/5ths of this (based on working there 3 working days a week) as an expense, while still claiming my monthly office space rental cost?

The office space was actually cheaper than 20% of my rent. If I can only claim one, should I claim the home office or would this seen as incorrect behaviour?

Thanks!

[SueEllen]

What does your accountant say?

The HMRC guidelines make it clear if you choose to work from home when there is office space available you can't claim.

[northernladuk]

Someone needs to start talking to their accountant more.

[trebor123]

Someone needs to start talking to their accountant more.

My accountant gave me this copy and paste answer to the specific question. She didn't really answer the question at hand i.e. can I claim for both.

"You are allowed to claim for your home office, HMRC guideline rates are £18 per month to cover heating and lighting. You are also allowed to claim your internet connection if you use this for work purposes and where private use is deemed insignificant."

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

What does your accountant say?

The HMRC guidelines make it clear if you choose to work from home when there is office space available you can't claim.

Not quite the whole story.

If you have to work from home, you can claim tax relief regardless of whether your employer has reimbursed you for any costs. You can claim up to £4/week without further evidence or a calculated proportion of any additional costs with evidence.

If you work from home voluntarily, you can't claim tax relief on its own but your employer can still choose to pay your additional costs (or the £4/week rate) without any tax implications.

TLDR; it's fine for YourCo to pay you £4/week for working from home voluntarily even if you can work elsewhere.

OP personally I would stick with the £4/week rather than trying to work out your additional costs and apportioning them.

https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-em...orking-at-home

[SlipTheJab]

Not quite the whole story.

If you have to work from home, you can claim tax relief regardless of whether your employer has reimbursed you for any costs. You can claim up to £4/week without further evidence or a calculated proportion of any additional costs with evidence.

If you work from home voluntarily, you can't claim tax relief on its own but your employer can still choose to pay your additional costs (or the £4/week rate) without any tax implications.

TLDR; it's fine for YourCo to pay you £4/week for working from home voluntarily even if you can work elsewhere.

OP personally I would stick with the £4/week rather than trying to work out your additional costs and apportioning them.

https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-em...orking-at-home

+1, Don't take the mick by trying to claim for more than the 4 quid a week HMRC allowance for home office, the rented external office expense will be receipted and you can bang that through the company.

[dingdong]

I'd be willing to bet that people that do take the mickey with their claims for actual home office expenses (rather than the fixed allowance) are probably far more likely to be taking the mickey elsewhere in their expenses (and it wouldn't suprise me if HMRC's super powerful data mining software picked up on that as one of the criteria for determining which cases should be investigated).

[northernladuk]

I'd be willing to bet that people that do take the mickey with their claims for actual home office expenses (rather than the fixed allowance) are probably far more likely to be taking the mickey elsewhere in their expenses (and it wouldn't suprise me if HMRC's super powerful data mining software picked up on that as one of the criteria for determining which cases should be investigated).

Two gig's ago I met someone whos company was paying for an extension to the house because it included and office. If that wasn't enough they then went on to charge the company monthly rent for the office each month way and above even the percentage model. They had a tenancy agreement drawn up between her and the company so they were safe. I couldn't find enough faces and palms for this one. She just wouldn't have it when I tried pointing out so many obvious problems with this model.

Wonder if she still owns the house or had to sell it to settle her tax bill once she got investigated.

But yeah.. I imagine what DD says is pretty true.

[SueEllen]

I'd be willing to bet that people that do take the mickey with their claims for actual home office expenses (rather than the fixed allowance) are probably far more likely to be taking the mickey elsewhere in their expenses (and it wouldn't suprise me if HMRC's super powerful data mining software picked up on that as one of the criteria for determining which cases should be investigated).

You have obviously looked at the other thread the OP started.

[trebor123]

+1, Don't take the mick by trying to claim for more than the 4 quid a week HMRC allowance for home office, the rented external office expense will be receipted and you can bang that through the company.

Thanks this is exactly the kind of advice I needed. Final question, could I just claim for the home office and not for the external office. The apportioned cost of the home office is actually much higher than the external.offices pace as the external.officespace was for evening hours only.