Working From Home Tax Relief: Abolished From April 2026

Employees can no longer claim tax relief for the additional household costs of working from home. The deduction was withdrawn on 6 April 2026, so there is nothing to claim for 2026/27. The four earlier tax years are still open, and if you qualified in any of them and never claimed, the money is still there. This guide covers what changed, what you can still recover, and what your employer can still pay you tax-free.

To check whether the tax, NI and PAYE lines look right on your own slip, see How do I check my payslip is correct?.

What changed on 6 April 2026

A new section 360B of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 blocks any deduction under section 336 for an employee's additional household expenses of working from home. HMRC's manual states it plainly: "From 6 April 2026 onwards, a deduction from earnings is no longer permitted for an employee's additional household expenses."

That removes both routes that used to exist: the £6 a week flat rate and the claim for actual costs. HMRC's own impact note put the cost to taxpayers at £62 a year for a basic-rate payer and £124 for a higher-rate payer, affecting around 300,000 people.

Sources: HMRC, removal of tax relief on non-reimbursed homeworking expenses; EIM32759; Claim tax relief for your job expenses: working from home.

Two things were not affected. Travel expenses under section 337 are untouched, so a home-based employee travelling to a temporary workplace can still deduct the journey. And the measure only bites on unreimbursed costs - money your employer actually pays you is dealt with separately, below.

What your employer can still pay you

Section 316A of ITEPA 2003 survives. An employer can pay a homeworking employee £6 a week, or £26 a month for monthly-paid staff, free of income tax and National Insurance, with no records and no justification required. The employee has to be working from home under a homeworking arrangement rather than simply catching up on email in the evening.

That rate is a guideline, not a ceiling. An employer can pay more tax-free if it can evidence the higher cost (EIM01476).

The practical consequence of the April 2026 change is that the burden has moved from HMRC to your employer. If you work from home and your household bills are higher for it, the conversation to have is with payroll, not with HMRC.

Which years you can still claim

You have four years from the end of a tax year to make a claim. During 2026/27 that leaves four years open:

The 2020/21 and 2021/22 years, when HMRC accepted that being required to work from home for a single day qualified you for the whole year, are now out of time.

Each open year is worth £6 a week over 52 weeks - £312 of deductible expense, which is £62.40 back at basic rate and £124.80 at higher rate. Four full years at basic rate is about £250.

Who qualified for those years

For 2022/23 onwards the strict test applied. You qualified if:

1. Your contract required you to work from home, so your home was your normal place of work, or your employer had no office available to you.
2. Or your employer required you to work from home for a specific health or safety reason, such as a disability accommodation.
3. And you actually incurred additional household costs as a result.

You did not qualify if:

• You worked from home as a personal preference your employer accommodated.
• You were on a hybrid arrangement where you chose which days were remote.
• Your employer offered an office and you chose home anyway.
• Your employer already reimbursed the costs tax-free.

The distinction between "required" and "permitted" was the whole test, and HMRC applied it strictly. If you could have worked from the office without breaching your contract, you did not qualify.

Self-employed people are unaffected by any of this. Household costs attributable to the business remain a deductible business expense in Self Assessment, either on an apportionment or using HMRC's simplified flat rates.

How to file a backdated claim

Online through your Personal Tax Account

1. Sign in to your HMRC Personal Tax Account at gov.uk/personal-tax-account.
2. Follow the "Claim tax relief for your job expenses" route.
3. Select the earlier years you are claiming for. You will not be offered 2026/27.
4. Confirm you were required to work from home in each of those years.
5. Submit.

HMRC pays the refund directly or adjusts the relevant year. It will not adjust your 2026/27 tax code, because there is no ongoing relief to code in. If you had WFH relief sitting in your current code from a previous claim, expect HMRC to remove it - and check your next payslip, because that removal will slightly increase your monthly tax.

By form P87

For higher-value claims, or if you do not have a Personal Tax Account, file form P87 at gov.uk/government/publications/income-tax-tax-relief-for-expenses-of-employment-p87.

Is a backdated claim worth the effort

Four open years at basic rate come to roughly £250, and the online claim takes about ten minutes. That is a reasonable return on the time if you genuinely met the strict test in those years.

If you are unsure, ask your employer's HR team to confirm in writing whether you were required rather than permitted to work from home. That confirmation is your evidence if HMRC asks.

Why we do not recommend a refund firm for this

The claim is HMRC's simplest expense-relief category: a short form, a binary eligibility test, and a modest refund. Paying 20% to 35% of a £250 backdated refund to have a firm file it is poor value, and the window for the oldest year closes on 5 April 2027 regardless of who files it.

Use a refund firm only if you have a multi-year, complex mix of expenses - mileage, uniform, professional fees and homeworking together - and your records are scattered.

Disclaimer

PayslipIQ provides automated educational guidance based on the figures you supply. It is not regulated tax advice. The employee deduction for homeworking household costs was withdrawn from 6 April 2026 by section 360B ITEPA 2003; earlier years remain claimable within the normal four-year window. If your circumstances are unusual (disability accommodation, no employer office at all, mixed contractor and employee status), contact HMRC on 0300 200 3300 or use a CTA-qualified tax adviser.