Remember when everyone was claiming working from home tax relief during the pandemic? HMRC made it easy — a simple online tool, no questions asked, and you got a flat £6 per week deduction. Millions claimed it, and for many people, it was the first time they had ever interacted with the tax system beyond their payslip.
Fast forward to 2026, and the landscape has changed. HMRC tightened the rules starting from the 2022/23 tax year, and while working from home tax relief still exists, qualifying for it is no longer automatic. If you work from home even some of the time, here is what you need to know.
The Basic Rule: You Must Be Required to Work from Home
This is the crucial distinction. To claim working from home tax relief, you must work from home because your employer requires it — not simply because you choose to. If you have a desk at the office and your employer allows you to work from home but does not mandate it, HMRC says you do not qualify.
During the pandemic, this requirement was effectively waived because everyone was required to stay home. But now, with most offices fully reopened and hybrid working being a matter of personal arrangement, far fewer people meet the threshold.
Examples of people who do qualify include:
- Employees whose employment contract specifies home as their primary workplace
- Workers whose employer has no office space available for them
- Employees who work from home on specific days because their employer requires it (not just permits it)
- People who live too far from any office to commute daily, where the employer has agreed home-based working
If you simply choose to work from home two days a week because your company offers flexible working, that alone does not entitle you to the relief. The word "required" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
What Can You Claim?
If you do qualify, there are two ways to claim:
Option 1: The Flat Rate (Simpler)
You can claim a flat £6 per week (£312 per year) without providing receipts or evidence of actual costs. At the basic tax rate of 20%, this saves you £62.40 per year. Higher-rate taxpayers save £124.80. It is not a huge amount, but it is straightforward and requires no record-keeping.
Option 2: Actual Costs (Potentially More Valuable)
Alternatively, you can claim the actual additional costs of working from home. This includes the proportion of your household bills — electricity, heating, water, broadband — that relates to your work. You will need to calculate the business-use percentage, which typically involves working out what fraction of your home is used for work and how many hours per week you work there.
For someone who has a dedicated home office and works from home full-time, the actual cost claim can be significantly higher than £312. But the record-keeping is more involved, and HMRC may ask for evidence if they query your claim.
Our working from home calculator can help you estimate both the flat-rate and actual-cost claims so you can see which is more beneficial.
How to Claim
If you are employed (not self-employed), you claim working from home tax relief through HMRC's online portal. For the current and previous tax years, you can submit a P87 form online. If your total employment expenses (including working from home) exceed £2,500, you will need to file a Self-Assessment tax return instead.
Self-employed individuals claim the relief as part of their Self-Assessment, either using the flat-rate simplified expenses or by calculating actual costs. Our self-employed tax calculator factors in home office expenses as part of your deductible costs.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
HMRC has been cracking down on incorrect claims, so it is important to get this right:
- Do not claim if you simply choose to work from home. The relief is for those required to do so. Claiming incorrectly could result in a penalty
- Do not double-claim. If your employer already pays you a working from home allowance (some pay £26 per month or similar), you cannot also claim the tax relief on top
- Keep records. If you are claiming actual costs, keep utility bills and a log of your working hours at home. HMRC can ask for evidence up to four years after the claim
- Do not include costs that have not increased. Your mortgage or rent is not claimable because you would pay it whether you worked from home or not. Only additional costs count
What About Equipment?
If your employer does not provide equipment and you need to buy things like a desk, chair, monitor, or keyboard specifically for work, you may be able to claim tax relief on these too. The key test is that the item must be used exclusively and necessarily for your work.
A laptop you use for both work and personal browsing? HMRC would not allow a full deduction. A second monitor you bought solely because you need dual screens for your job? That is more likely to qualify.
Again, the P87 form or Self-Assessment is the mechanism for claiming. And remember, you can backdate claims for up to four previous tax years if you did not claim at the time.
The Hybrid Working Grey Area
The big challenge in 2026 is that millions of people are in a grey area. They work from home two or three days a week, their employer is broadly supportive but has not formally mandated it, and they are not sure whether they qualify or not.
If you are in this situation, the honest answer is: it depends on your specific arrangement. If your contract says you are home-based with occasional office attendance, you likely qualify. If your contract says you are office-based with the option to work from home, you probably do not.
When in doubt, check your employment contract and speak to your employer's HR department. Getting clarity now is better than facing an unexpected HMRC inquiry later.
For a complete picture of how working-from-home relief interacts with your overall tax position, run your numbers through our salary calculator and check your tax code to make sure everything is in order.