Working from home - self-employed and property income
If you work from home as someone who is self-employed, you can claim certain costs.
And note that utility and property costs are treated separately to internet and phone costs.
Utility and property costs
There are two ways to do this:
- A fixed amount per week based on usage
- Apportioning the costs
A fixed amount for utility and property costs - the untied wizard
In untied we have a working from home wizard that applies the fixed amount per week based on HMRC guidelines. This covers utility and property costs (including rent or mortgage etc) and council tax.
In untied Pro in the browser, navigate to Tax forms > Home Working:
In the untied mobile app you can find this under the taxes tab for that year.
Apportioning utility and property costs
Alternative you can apportion the costs. In this case you don't need to use the wizard.
Just claim the expenses as usual and apply the business share - you'll need a reasonable basis for the apportionment. See this article on splitting transactions.
Some users set up a custom tag to identify home costs during the year, and then apportion them to take account of their private vs business use at the end of the year.
While you can claim a business share of rent or mortgage interest, you cannot claim the capital repayment part of your mortgage payments.
Internet and telephone costs
You can claim the business share of internet and telephony costs in addition to what you are claiming for your other utilities and property costs (whether you have done that as a fixed amount or by apportioning the costs).
Managing your rental property from home
If you have rental income, you can also claim an amount for working from home for managing your property portfolio. In untied this needs to be done through transactions rather than using the wizard.