UK Working From Home Tax Relief Calculator (Abolished April 2026)

Working From Home Tax Guide

WFH Relief Was Abolished from 6 April 2026

HMRC abolished working-from-home tax relief for employees from 6 April 2026, so no new claims can be made for the 2026/27 tax year or later. This applies to all employees, including those contractually required to work from home — not just those who chose to. HMRC made the change after finding high levels of non-compliance, with over half of reviewed claims found to be ineligible. Crucially, the relief isn't entirely closed off: you can still submit a claim for the 2025/26 tax year (which ended 5 April 2026), and you can make retrospective claims for up to four earlier tax years if you were eligible and didn't claim at the time — so claims going back through the COVID-era years may still be worth making before each year's deadline passes. For reference, the relief that applied up to 5 April 2026 was: flat rate £6 per week (£312 per year) with no receipts required, worth about £62/year to a basic-rate taxpayer and £125/year to a higher-rate taxpayer; or actual additional costs if higher (see below). Use this calculator to value any retrospective claim you're still entitled to make. Going forward, the main routes for home-working costs are employer reimbursement (your employer can still pay up to £6/week tax- and NI-free — see 'How to Claim') and, for the self-employed, the separate home-working expense rules (unaffected by this change — see the self-employed section).

Actual Costs Method

If additional household costs exceed £6/week, you can claim actual costs. Allowable costs: heating and electricity for the room used for work (proportionate to time and space). Business telephone calls (not line rental). Broadband (only the business-use proportion). NOT allowable: mortgage or rent. Council tax. General home insurance. Costs that would exist regardless of working from home. How to calculate proportionate costs: heating bill × (hours working from home / total hours per year) × (ro

How to Claim (Retrospective) and the Employer Route

For retrospective claims covering tax years up to and including 2025/26, the routes are unchanged: through Self Assessment (add the expense in the employment section), via form P87 (online or paper) if you don't do Self Assessment, or through your HMRC online personal tax account under 'claim tax relief for your job expenses'. Check each tax year's claim deadline — claims can generally be made up to four years after the end of the relevant tax year, so older years expire first. Also check your tax code: if you claimed WFH relief in the past and the allowance is still baked into your 2026/27 tax code, it will now be wrong — contact HMRC to have it removed so you aren't under-taxed and landed with a bill later. Going forward, the employer route is the main option: your employer can pay you up to £6/week (£312/year) towards home-working costs free of tax and National Insurance, without you needing receipts. This is an employer decision, not an automatic entitlement, so it's worth asking whether your employer will reimburse home-working costs now that the personal relief has gone. Larger actual-cost reimbursements are also possible tax-free where genuinely incurred and evidenced.

Contractor and Self-Employed WFH

Self-employed (sole trader, partnership): can claim a proportion of household costs as a business expense. Simplified method: HMRC flat rate based on hours worked from home. 25-50 hrs/month: £10/month. 51-100 hrs/month: £18/month. 101+ hrs/month: £26/month. Actual cost method: calculate the business proportion of all relevant costs. Limited company director: must be a formal contractual requirement to work from home. Director can charge the company a room rental (at market rate) — taxable as ren