Homeworking tax relief changed from April. What workers can still claim

For years, working from home came with a small but useful tax break for some employees. That has now changed.

From April, workers can no longer make a fresh claim for homeworking tax relief for the current tax year. That does not mean every form of support has disappeared, but it does mean the old arrangement is no longer available in the way many people were used to.

For anyone working remotely or on a hybrid basis, the important point now is understanding what has ended, what still exists, and where the line sits between an employee claim and an employer reimbursement.

What has changed this month

The biggest shift is straightforward: employees can no longer claim tax relief for working from home for the 2026/27 tax year.

That closes off the route many people previously used to claim relief on additional household costs linked to homeworking. In earlier years, eligible employees could either claim a flat amount each week or, if appropriate, the exact amount of allowable costs.

Who used to qualify

This relief was never meant for everyone working at the kitchen table a few days a week by choice. The rules were narrower than that.

It applied where someone had to work from home in order to do their job. That might have been because the employer had no office available to them, or because the nature of the role made homeworking necessary. It did not generally apply where a contract simply allowed remote working as an option.

That distinction mattered before, and it still matters when looking back at older claims.

What can still be claimed now

Although the relief has ended for the current tax year, workers can still make claims for the previous four tax years where they were eligible under the rules in force at the time.

That means this has not vanished overnight for everyone in every situation. Someone who qualified in an earlier year may still be able to go back and claim for that period, provided the conditions were met.

How the old relief worked

Under the previous system, an eligible employee could usually claim a flat-rate amount of £6 a week, or claim the exact additional household costs incurred where those were higher and could be evidenced properly.

Allowable costs were limited. The relief was aimed at extra household expenses caused by homeworking, such as increased gas and electricity for the work area or business telephone calls.

It did not cover everything people often assume. General rent, broadband already in place for private use, or other mixed personal costs did not usually qualify.

What has not disappeared

This is the part many people miss. The change removes the employee’s own tax claim for non-reimbursed homeworking expenses in the current tax year. It does not shut down all employer support linked to working from home.

Where the rules are met, employers can still reimburse eligible costs without deducting Income Tax and National Insurance contributions. In other words, the individual claim route has narrowed, but the employer route still exists.

Why employer reimbursements matter more now

In practical terms, this shifts more importance onto what an employer is willing to cover directly.

If a business pays or reimburses qualifying homeworking costs properly, that may still be handled without a tax charge in the relevant cases. For workers, that means the conversation is no longer just about what can be reclaimed from HMRC later. It is increasingly about what support is offered through the job itself.

There is also a wider change to some reimbursements

From April, tax and NIC relief has been widened for certain reimbursed workplace-related items. That includes some reimbursements connected to homeworking equipment.

This does not mean every home office purchase is automatically covered. It means the tax treatment of some low-value work-related reimbursements is now more consistent where the statutory conditions are met.

What workers should check now

The first thing is whether you are thinking about the current tax year or an earlier one. For 2026/27, the old employee claim route for homeworking relief is gone. For earlier years, there may still be scope to claim if you qualified at the time.

The second is whether your employer reimburses any work-from-home costs directly. That may now matter more than it did before.

The third is to avoid assuming that hybrid working automatically creates a tax claim. It does not. The old rules were narrower than many people realised, and the new rules are narrower still.

What this means in practice

For many workers, the change will not feel dramatic in any single month. The old relief was relatively modest for basic-rate taxpayers. Even so, it was still something, and losing it will be noticeable for people who had been relying on it year after year.

The bigger shift is structural. Working from home is now much less likely to bring a personal tax claim, and much more likely to depend on whether an employer chooses to cover certain costs in the first place.

Final thought

The homeworking tax break has not vanished in every possible sense, but it has changed shape in a way that matters. The personal claim route for the new tax year has closed. Older claims may still be possible, and employer reimbursements remain an important part of the picture.

For workers, the safest approach now is not to assume the old rules still apply. This is one of those changes that sounds technical, but makes a real difference once payslips, expenses and household costs start meeting each other in everyday life.