Who can still claim tax relief for working from home

When a small firm gives up its office lease and moves everyone onto laptops at the kitchen table, the change rarely comes with a note about tax. Staff simply start heating a spare room during the day. For several years, people in that position could ask HMRC for a small amount of tax relief on those extra household bills. That option has now been narrowed sharply, and the useful question is no longer how to claim but who still can.

What changed on 6 April 2026

The Autumn Budget on 26 November 2025 announced the removal of the tax relief employees could claim for additional household costs when their employer did not reimburse them. HMRC’s published note on the measure says it takes effect from 6 April 2026 and that it removes the process through which employees claimed a deduction from HMRC. Its stated reason is compliance: after checking claims, HMRC found that over half were ineligible. It estimates around 300,000 people are affected.

GOV.UK now says plainly that for the tax year 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027 employees cannot claim tax relief for working from home. Claims can still be made for the 4 previous tax years.

The rules for the years that are still open

For the tax years from 2022/23 to 2025/26, the test is whether the employee had to work from home, not whether they chose to. GOV.UK gives two examples of having to: the job requires living far away from the office, or the employer does not have an office at all.

Choosing to work from home does not qualify. GOV.UK specifically includes the case where an employment contract allows home working some or all of the time, and the case where the employer has an office but it is sometimes full. That rules out a large share of hybrid workers, which is one reason HMRC found so many claims were ineligible.

£6 a week, or the actual extra cost

For eligible years, there are two ways to work out the amount:

• The flat rate of £6 a week. No receipts for the bills are needed, but for 2022/23 or later the claim must include evidence that the employee had to work from home, such as a copy of the employment contract.
• The exact extra cost. This needs the same evidence of having to work from home, plus evidence of the costs, such as copies of bills or receipts.

Only costs connected to the work count, such as business phone calls or the gas and electricity for the work area. Anyone who completes a Self Assessment tax return has to claim through the return rather than the online service.

What does not count

GOV.UK rules out anything used for both private and business purposes, giving rent and broadband access as examples. The relief also cannot be more than the tax actually paid in the year, so someone with income under the Personal Allowance gains nothing.

The test was never whether someone worked from home, but whether their employer left them no choice.

What the relief is worth

The relief is not £6 a week in cash. It is tax relief at the person’s highest rate on £6 a week, so GOV.UK’s own example puts it at £1.20 a week for a basic rate taxpayer.

Assumes the person was required to work from home for the whole of each year from 2022/23 to 2025/26, paid at least that much tax, and stayed at the same rate. Rates for England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scottish rates differ. Illustrative only.

These figures match HMRC’s own estimate of the average effect of the change: £62 for basic rate and £124 for higher rate taxpayers.

How far back a claim can still go

The general time limit for a claim is four years from the end of the tax year it relates to. As at autumn 2026, that leaves 2022/23 as the earliest open year, and a claim for it has to be made by 5 April 2027. After that, the window narrows by a year each April until the employee claim runs out altogether.

The employer route from 2026/27

The part of the system that survives is the employer payment. GOV.UK’s employer guidance says an employer can pay up to £6 a week, or £26 a month for employees paid monthly, towards additional household costs without tax or National Insurance, as long as the employee works at home under an agreed arrangement and does so regularly. Payments above that limit are only tax-free if the employer can show they do not exceed the employee’s actual extra costs.

Employers are not obliged to make these payments. Where one does, the employee cannot also claim relief from HMRC for the same costs.

Who this matters for, and what to check

• Employees whose employer had no office, or whose job required them to live too far away to travel in, at any point since 6 April 2022.
• Anyone in that group who has not yet claimed: the 2022/23 year closes on 5 April 2027.
• Hybrid workers who claimed in the past: if the contract allowed a choice, those years were not eligible.
• People working from home in 2026/27: the question to ask is whether the employer pays a homeworking allowance.
• Employees who also buy specialist work clothing or tools, which is a different relief that has not been removed: see claiming tax relief for work uniforms and tools.

Where this leaves home workers

For employees, the working-from-home relief now looks backwards only. Those who were genuinely required to work at home can still claim for 2022/23 to 2025/26, at £6 a week or their actual extra costs, with evidence that home working was required. From 2026/27 the only tax-free route is an allowance paid by the employer. The amounts were always small and the evidence test is strict, so the GOV.UK conditions are worth reading first.