What if I told you that there is money you can get from government today? It is a tax refund that is sitting there and waiting for you.
Did the above catch your eye? I’m sure it made you excited and your fingers are itching to get some free cash into your bank account.
If the above is the case for you – continue reading. Below I will share the rough value waiting for you, criteria to be eligible and the easy way to claim this. The process will take no more than 5 mins.
What tax refund can I get?
Those of you who have looked into tax and refunds they can claim might already be aware of the below. For some, it will be something new they learn today.
In the UK the law states – if you work from home you are able to claim some tax refund. It is in place to help you with the expenses that you incur.
The expenses I’m referring to are things you might not even consider – electricity, heating, water. Even wifi that you use for work purposes.
The scheme is there to help you with the costs that you have to pocket out for due to working from home.
who is eligible to get this tax refund?
The above has a slight catch and not everyone is able to apply for this unfortunately. In order to be able to claim – you need to be able to prove that you work from home.
Having a home based or a hybrid contract is one of the easiest and most simple ways to be able to claim this.
If you unfortunately have an office based contract it might be trickier to claim this.
However, there is an exception that applies to people who have an office based contract during the 2 COVID years (2020 & 2021)
what’s the exception?
During COVID the government has slightly relaxed the above rule. There is no need to prove your eligibility to the scheme as most office based people had to work from home.
This means that even if you have worked a single day from home you are able to claim a full years worth of tax relief. You have to claim and no proof of the above will be asked from you.
The biggest beauty of the above is that you are able to back date 2 years worth of tax relief.
how much can I claim?
The tax refund would be given to you through an increase to your tax free allowance. What this means is that the higher your salary and higher the tax bracket you are in – the more take home cash benefit you will get. If you want to learn more about tax brackets – you can read this article.
For every week you claim your tax free allowance gets increased by £6.
For people who are in the 20% tax bracket this would equate to £1.20 per week in their bank account (£62.40 annually). If however you are in the 40% tax bracket the net benefit doubles – £2.40 per week (£124.80 annual).
The above is a nice little bit of extra cash you can get from the government. This will help with the expenses you had to cover from your own pocket.
How do I claim the above?
I’m sure now you think that this is all great but it will be a painful and long process to claim the above. I can assure you that this isn’t the case at all. The process is super simple and quick.
You will need a couple bits of your personal information to hand and 5 minutes of spare time. Follow the below link to the HMRC web site and follow the steps at the bottom of the page. Have your National Insurance number to hand. The rest of the information you will know automatically so no need to look for anything else.
Just follow this link and fill in the information required.
summary
There is an opportunity to get some of your expenses covered by government since you had to work from home during COVID. Just follow the simple and quick process above to claim this.
For those who work from home regularly this applies to more than just the 2 COVID years and is an ongoing benefit. The important thing to keep in mind is that you need to be able to prove that you are working from home.
The above didn’t apply to anyone no matter what contract you are on during 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 financial years.