Covid working from home tax relief needs to be claimed again

Last tax year people who had been forced to work from home due to Covid-19, even if only for one day, were able to claim a tax allowance of £6 a week, if their extra expenses were not reimbursed by their employer. Those eligible to claim may assume that, as the country was still in lockdown at the start of this tax year, the allowance would automatically be granted again. This is not the case.

As for 2020/21 it is necessary to claim the allowance for 2021/22 on the Government Gateway. The rules are simple, the claim is straightforward and very easy to make.

Claim tax relief for your job expenses: Working from home - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

It is disappointing that, as with the original claim, there seems to be a lack of publicity for this requirement. Many taxpayers will not realise that they need to take action. No doubt other taxpayers missed the chance to make the claim in 2020/21 for similar reasons.

This is a helpful and well-designed relief, it is unfortunate that many people are likely to fail to claim it.