Working from home during Covid

Can you claim the working from home allowance for two employments?

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I have a client with two employments, can I claim the Covid working from home allowance for both employments?

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By meadowsaw227
19th Jul 2021 10:53

I certainly wouldn't.

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By ospevack
19th Jul 2021 11:26

I would work on the basis that the individual could only get tax relief on £6 p/week (currently), as it is based on a rate for working from home by the week - so would potentially need apportioning between time spent on each employment. Anything more would, imo, be considered above the pre approved HMRC rate.

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Replying to ospevack:
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By mbee1
19th Jul 2021 11:37

ospevack wrote:

I would work on the basis that the individual could only get tax relief on £6 p/week (currently), as it is based on a rate for working from home by the week - so would potentially need apportioning between time spent on each employment. Anything more would, imo, be considered above the pre approved HMRC rate.


A thought - what if neither employer knew about the other employment which is quite feasable and both of them paid the £6 per week tax free to the employee? Wrong?
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Replying to mbee1:
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By Hugo Fair
19th Jul 2021 11:48

Of course it's 'wrong' (not the paying of it but treating it as tax free) ... the tax relief applies to the individual not to the employer/employment.

The result? Irrespective of whether or not (and how) HMRC eventually find out, one lot will be treated as taxable earnings - and clawed back.
Whether they would be bothered to issue any penalty for failure to notify is unlikely.

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Replying to Hugo Fair:
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By ospevack
19th Jul 2021 16:31

sorry only just picked up on this - I agree with Hugo- the tax position and treatment of the employer would be independent of the employee.

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By Tax Dragon
19th Jul 2021 12:12

Do you really have a client, Grandma - or should you perhaps be one?

Whatever, you need to distinguish between the case where an employer makes a payment to an employee in respect of reasonable additional household expenses which the employee incurs in carrying out duties of the employment at home under homeworking arrangements, and the case where that doesn't happen. You need to distinguish because, as has happened here, respondents often don't. And the rules are different.

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Replying to Tax Dragon:
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By Hugo Fair
19th Jul 2021 12:35

Perfectly valid point ... and (mea culpa) I had assumed that the difference was understood - and that OP, by using the phrase "can I claim the Covid working from home allowance for both employments" was referring to her claiming tax relief from HMRC. So, two assumptions in quick succession! Followed quickly by a 3rd one, when I assumed that mbee1 was talking about payments of the allowance (tax-free) made by employers ... probably a correct assumption at last!

In a world where the 'gods' (aka Martin Lewis) have been known to use phrases like 'claiming your £6 per week from HMRC', it's not surprising how many confused people are out there - although hopefully not on these pages.

[Note: there is of course a 3rd set of completely different calcs if the person WFH is self-employed].

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Replying to Hugo Fair:
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By ospevack
19th Jul 2021 16:50

yes, agreed - very valid point - I too had assumed that this was an HMRC relief claim, and that the OP already knew the difference.

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