Work From Home Tax Relief Calculator, 2026/27

How this is calculated

This calculator multiplies the number of weeks you were required to work from home by the flat rate weekly allowance, currently £6.00, and then applies your marginal tax rate to that total to show the actual cash relief, since the allowance itself is a deduction from taxable income rather than a direct payment.

This flat rate exists specifically to avoid employees having to calculate and evidence the exact extra cost of heating and lighting one room for work, which HMRC accepts as a reasonable proxy for most home working arrangements without further evidence being required.

Where actual additional costs, such as a dedicated internet upgrade or a clear increase in heating bills, genuinely exceed the flat rate, a claim can be made for the actual cost instead, but this requires bills and a fair method of apportioning them between business and personal use.

Employer requirement versus employee choice

The relief is only available where the employer requires the employee to work from home as part of their employment, commonly because the employer has no suitable office space, rather than where an employee simply prefers to work from home some or all of the time. Hybrid arrangements agreed voluntarily between employer and employee generally do not qualify unless the contract genuinely requires home working.

Employers can instead choose to pay the flat rate directly to employees tax-free, in which case there is no separate relief for the employee to claim, since the cost has already been met without deduction of tax.

Claiming the relief

Employees not already completing a self-assessment return typically claim through a P87 form or HMRC's online service, and the relief is usually applied to the tax code, spreading the benefit across the remaining pay periods of the year rather than as a lump sum.

The claim can typically be backdated up to four tax years where the working arrangement applied throughout, so it is worth checking earlier years if the claim has not previously been made.

How much is the work from home flat rate allowance?

The published flat rate is £6.00 a week, though this figure is unconfirmed for 2026/27 pending the next HMRC uprating announcement, so it is worth checking the latest guidance before relying on it.

Can I claim if I choose to work from home rather than being required to?

Generally no. The relief is intended for situations where the employer requires home working, typically because no workplace is provided, rather than a personal preference to work remotely some or all of the time.

Can I claim more than the flat rate?

Yes, if your actual additional costs from working at home genuinely exceed the flat rate, you can claim the actual cost instead, but this requires evidence such as bills and a reasonable method of splitting business and personal use.

Does this apply to self-employed people too?

Self-employed people use a different, separate set of simplified home working rates based on hours worked from home each month, rather than the employee flat rate weekly allowance shown here.