Are you an employee and work regular days at home?

If you...				work from home 1 or more days per week    use your car for employer's business    use your computer, furniture etc. for employer's business    use your tools for employer's business    incur travel or accommodation expenses on employer's business    incur other costs (eg: Insurance, Stationery, Books, Telephone, Professional Subscriptions)				...you can claim tax relief
	It can even be backdated for up to 5 years!

With this easy to use software you only need to enter a few basic details, and the software will create a personalised letter ready to send from you to your tax office. What could be simpler? Unclaimed costs of just £200 per year could result in a £480 refund for a 40% taxpayer or £275 for a basic rate taxpayer! At only £19.95 plus p&p the cost of the Instant Tax Refund software could be more than refunded in your first claim. Remember though that the tax allowance only applies if it is necessary for the employee to work from home, not if he/she merely chooses to work from home, but the Inland Revenue current practice is not to dispute small claims. www.instanttaxrefund.co.uk and don't forget to say Homeworking.com sent you!

TAX CLAIMS FOR EMPLOYEES WORKING FROM HOME

The Prime Minister and his government are actively encouraging employees to improve their quality of life through reduced commuting time, flexible working practices and spending more time at home with their families. These flexible working practices include teleworking (working from home) to enable employees to achieve a better balance between their work and their home lives.

In March 2000 Tony Blair and David Blunkett launched the ‘Work-Life Balance’ Campaign, which included the publication of ‘Changing Patterns in a Changing World’, a Department for Education and Employment discussion document. The Prime Minister said that the government wished to ‘…promote approaches to work that result in a more competitive and profitable business and a better quality of life for those who work in them’. David Blunkett added ‘…This is about imagination, not legislation’.

Many major employers are consolidating office premises and actively encouraging employees to work from home. Even some corporate bank managers are now based at home, with laptops. This gives the practical advantage of no longer needing to return to the bank in the evening to type up client meeting reports.

Unfortunately the Inland Revenue has not kept up with modern working practices and continues to focus on the ‘necessity’ to work from home as opposed to the government policy of ‘flexibility’ to work from home. The Revenue’s internal manuals currently state that no deduction is due where the employee works from home as a matter of choice or convenience, instead of making use of facilities made available by his employer. This is in direct contradiction of the above government policy. However, the Revenue’s internal manuals also advise staff that time should not be spent querying small claims where duties have necessarily been performed at home on a regular basis.

There is no question that working at home does incur additional costs in terms of electricity, gas, water etc and, with the prospect of up to 10% of employees working from home by 2004, it is time that the tax rules were updated to comply with government policy and recognise the change in working practices. As an initial step the ‘necessity’ requirement should be removed to ensure that claims can be processed simply and consistently in accordance with the formula incorporated in the Instant Tax Refund software package.

The Instant Tax Refund Software enables EMPLOYEES who WORK FROM HOME to submit a claim for the additional costs of working from home. For further information see the Website at www.instanttaxrefund.co.uk.