Working from home – home office.

[gullarm]

Both myself and my wife work and pay tax through PAYE.

My wife has been working from home since the start of the pandemic ( she has been into work around 5 times ), now I usually claim a nominal amount for a home office on my tax return (think its £2 per week – will have to double check).

I’m aware I can claim for my wife now working from home on her tax return, £4 for 19/20 and £6 for 20/21 but can I still claim my £2 per week on my tax return?

She is working on the kitchen table using her work laptop and monitor, whereas my office is upstairs in the 4^th bedroom.

Any idea?

[HomeLord]

Both of you pay separate tax
Both of you have separate tax returns

[Gordon999]

Are you both claiming expense against rental income from the same BTL property ?

Or claiming expense for working on your normal job , but done at home ?

[gullarm]

My wife is usually office based 99% of the time - I work for the local council.

My work hasn’t changed at all; she is now at home 99% of the time.

I run a BTL with 4 properties; I split the tax payments between both of us doing two tax returns splitting everything 50/50. I pretty much do 99% of the BTL work.

I usually just put down my home office at £2 per week, don’t claim for anything else, can’t be bothered with the hassle from HMRC if they come looking. My dad got investigated several years ago – turns out his accountant was dodgy and he ended up going to prison, still freaked him out as he didn’t know what his accountant had done and he got questioned as they thought he was in on it.

[jpkeates]

Your wife can claim £4 a week as an allowance for working from home.
That's nothing to do with your rental business and is a different allowance than you're claiming in relation to that business.

[cuttingman]

I believe working from home you can both claim £6 a week each in your tax returns. 2019-2020 £4 a week.

If you spend at least 25 hours a week on landlord stuff you can claim £4 a week. So not sure your £2 a week is valid because either you spend less than 25 hours and claim nothing or do 25 hours and claim £4.

[Gordon999]

You can't claim putting in 25hours a week, when you have a full time day job.