Don’t forget to claim home working tax relief
Due to the ongoing restrictions of the Government’s Coronavirus response, millions of UK workers continue to work from home.
Many may not be aware that they can claim tax relief for additional household costs if they are required to work from home regularly, either for all or part of the week.
This tax relief is not available to those who choose to work from home, only those that must do so.
This tax relief has been designed to cover additional costs, such as heating, metered water bills, home contents insurance, business calls or a new broadband connection.
A worker may also be able to claim tax relief on equipment used in their role, such as a laptop or mobile phone. Details of this can be found here.
However, the tax relief available does not cover costs that would stay the same whether a person was working at home or in an office, such as mortgage interest, rent or council tax.
Workers can either claim tax relief at a rate of:
- £6 a week from 6 April 2020 (for previous tax years the rate was £4 a week) – no evidence is required to make this claim.
- the exact amount of extra costs incurred above this weekly amount – this will need to be evidenced with receipts, bills or contracts.
Taxpayers get tax relief based on the rate at which they pay tax. For basic rate taxpayers (taxed at 20 per cent), for example, claiming £6 a week would mean they receive £1.20 per week in tax relief.
Employees can claim this relief by clicking here. They will need to use or set up a Government Gateway ID using their National Insurance number and information from their P60 form.
Discover accountant costs in Northampton, what affects fees and what accounting packages include. Contact 10CA for a tailored quote.
The 12 months since the last Budget was delivered have seen significant change. A more challenging global macroeconomic outlook, yet more inflationary pressures...
According to the latest Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report, almost two in five small businesses in the UK suffered a successful cyber-attack in the last year, with each attack costing an average of £26,650. Globally, cyber incidents cause around 32 hours of operational disruption a year on average. Cyber-attacks are no longer exceptional events, being viewed more as recurring costs, so businesses must prepare themselves financially for the impact. How should you prepare your finances in advance of a cyber-attack? A cyber-attack is slowly and sadly becoming a reality for many SME owners across the UK. To prepare, business owners should assess the potential financial risk a cyber-attack poses and forecast cash flow to ensure their business can survive one. It could also be beneficial to value your data assets to estimate the worth of any lost revenue and recovery expenses. Business owners may also want to keep offline playbooks. These are secure, printed offline copies of critical financial contacts, account numbers and recovery protocols to ensure that your business has key information in the event of a cyber-attack. Additionally, your business should establish strict double-check procedures for unusual payment requests or changes to supplier details to prevent business email compromise. You should also factor cyber insurance premiums into your operational risk management to ensure that you are prepared for any eventuality. What should you do to get your finances back in check after a cyber-attack? Should the worst-case scenario happen, once you are back on track, the first thing you should do is speak with your accountant. Your accountant will help you to calculate the exact monetary value of damaged assets, lost revenue and stolen money so that you know exactly where your business stands. They will then review your financial data and your tax records to establish a baseline for recovery and determine if the business can continue or if restructuring is necessary. Accountants can also help during complex cyber insurance claims by submitting the required evidence to ensure fair financial assessments of the business interruption costs. Once you have received any insurance payments, an accountant can advise on the tax implications. How can we help? Cyber-attacks are becoming more prevalent for businesses up and down the UK. That is why it is imperative that you receive advice on how you can best prepare your finances in a worst-case scenario. Our team of accountants can help you to prepare your business for a cyber-attack and in the event of a cyber-attack, we can help you pick up the financial pieces. Get in touch with our team for support with preparing your business for a cyber-attack.