“Can I claim home office expenses?” is one of the most common questions we get from both new clients and people thinking about going self-employed. It seems like it should have a straightforward answer. It doesn’t — or at least, it doesn’t any more.

As of 6 April 2026, the rules changed materially for employees. If you work for an employer and you’re working from home, your ability to claim personal tax relief on household costs has been removed entirely for the 2026/27 tax year onwards. That’s a meaningful shift from a relief that millions of workers had been claiming since the pandemic years.

But here’s what matters: those changes don’t affect the self-employed or limited company directors in the same way. If you run your own business, the picture is considerably better. This post walks through the three main scenarios — employee, sole trader, and limited company director — so you know exactly where you stand.

Until 5 April 2026, employees who worked from home could claim tax relief directly from HMRC on additional household costs — things like a portion of heating, electricity, and broadband. The simplest route was a flat rate of £6 per week (£312 a year), with relief given at your marginal tax rate. For a basic rate taxpayer, that worked out at around £62 a year; for a higher rate taxpayer, roughly £125.

From 6 April 2026, that option is gone. New legislation — introduced as section 360B into the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 — formally disallows employees from deducting additional household expenses from their earnings. So if you are employed and you work from home, whether by choice or by arrangement with your employer, you can no longer make a personal claim through Self Assessment or via HMRC’s online service for the 2026/27 tax year and beyond.

There is one important exception worth knowing: if your employer pays you a working-from-home allowance directly (up to £6 per week), that payment can still be made tax-free under the employer exemption rules — that’s a separate provision that hasn’t been removed. So the question becomes whether your employer is willing to pay it rather than you claiming it yourself. Many won’t bother, but it’s worth asking.

If you’re an employee who was working from home in previous years and never got around to making a claim, you haven’t necessarily missed the boat. HMRC allows backdated claims for up to four tax years, which means you can still claim relief for 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25, and 2025/26 — provided you were genuinely required to work from home during those periods.

The key word there is required. HMRC’s position has always been that you can only claim if working from home was a necessity, not a preference. If your employer had an office available to you and you simply chose to work from home — including under a hybrid arrangement — you were not eligible during those years either. This rule existed before April 2026; the new legislation didn’t create that restriction, it just extended it by removing the relief entirely going forward.

If you did work from home because your employer had no office, or because the nature of your job genuinely required it, it’s worth submitting a claim for those years before the window closes. For most people the sums aren’t huge, but £62 to £125 per year across four years is worth having back. We help clients with exactly this kind of backdated claim — it’s a simple process when handled correctly.

Here’s the good news if you’re a sole trader: none of the April 2026 changes affect you. HMRC confirmed that no amendments are being made to the existing rules for the self-employed on homeworking expenses. If you run your own business and work from home, you can still claim a proportion of your household costs as a business expense against your self-employment income.

There are two approaches:

The flat-rate simplified expenses method

HMRC’s simplified expenses scheme lets you claim a fixed monthly amount based on the hours you work from home each month:

• 25 to 50 hours per month: £10/month
• 51 to 100 hours per month: £18/month
• 101 or more hours per month: £26/month

This is the easier route — no receipts to retain, no calculations to justify. For most sole traders working from home regularly, it adds up to a meaningful annual deduction with minimal admin.

The actual costs method

Alternatively, you can claim a reasonable proportion of your actual household costs — gas, electricity, water, broadband, and even a share of your mortgage interest or rent. The proportion is typically calculated by dividing the number of rooms used for business by the total number of rooms, adjusted for the hours in use. It requires more record-keeping but often produces a larger deduction if you have a dedicated home office.

Both methods are legitimate. The right one depends on your costs and how much time you want to spend on the calculation.

If you operate through a limited company and work from home, the position is different again — and, handled correctly, it can be more tax-efficient than either the employee or sole trader route.

Your company can pay you a use-of-home allowance of up to £6 per week (£312 per year) tax-free, without needing to justify the exact amount. This is separate from the employee relief that was removed in April 2026 — it’s an employer-pays provision, not an employee-claims provision, and it remains intact.

Alternatively, the company can reimburse you for a proportion of your actual household costs, provided those costs are calculated on a reasonable basis and are genuinely incurred for business use. This requires a bit more documentation but can result in a larger deduction flowing through the company, reducing its taxable profits and your overall tax burden.

There’s an important nuance here: if part of your home is used exclusively for business, it can create a capital gains tax issue on that portion of the property when you eventually sell. For most directors working from a spare room or kitchen table, exclusive use isn’t a concern — but it’s worth understanding before making any structural decisions.

This is an area where getting the calculation right genuinely matters, and where a quick conversation with an accountant tends to pay for itself.