Home Working Allowance Calculator UK

From 6 April 2026 (tax year 2026/27), HMRC no longer allows employees to claim tax relief for working from home. The £6/week flat rate is not available for 2026/27. However, you can still claim for the previous 4 tax years (2022/23 to 2025/26) at £6 per week (£312/year). A basic rate taxpayer claiming all 4 years could receive up to £249.60, and a higher rate taxpayer up to £499.20. Source: GOV.UK

No — HMRC requires that you work from home because you have to, not because you choose to. Your employer must require you to work from home regularly, or your home must be a genuine place of work. Since April 2022, HMRC tightened the rules back to requiring a genuine need — most office workers who simply prefer WFH cannot claim.

Employees can claim via a P87 form or through their Self Assessment return. For 2020-2022 (COVID period), HMRC created a microservice at gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees where you could claim for full years. Self-employed sole traders can claim home working costs on their Self Assessment as part of their business expenses.

Yes — self-employed people can claim home working costs using either the simplified flat rate method (HMRC's fixed rates based on hours worked: £10/month for 25-50 hours, £18/month for 51-100 hours, £26/month for 100+ hours) or the actual cost method proportioning household bills by rooms and hours.

For the actual cost method, you can include: electricity and gas used during working hours, broadband (proportional to work use), water rates (very small proportion), and council tax (minimal business use). You cannot claim mortgage interest, rent, or any costs that do not vary with working from home.