In this week’s updates, we bring you a further update on the ending of several easements including the relief for working from home in 2022/23 and the cycle to work easement which ended on 5 April 2022.
Employees who have been claiming the £6 per week working from home tax relief during the pandemic in 2020/21 and 2021/22 are urged to check their tax codes to for 2022/23 to see if HMRC has automatically included the relief in their tax code for the current tax year.
During the pandemic, this relief was available by concession to anyone who worked at home due to the pandemic and relief was provided for the full tax year irrespective of how many actual days the employee worked at home. However this relaxation ended on 5 April 2022.
Relief is only now available under the updated guidance rules which states that you cannot claim relief if you choose to work from home.
More employers are offering hybrid working arrangements thus HMRC has updated guidance within the Employment Income Manual to reflect this. There have been no changes to the relevant legislation or policies.
HMRC has also introduced new signposting pages for travel expenses to enhance navigation across the existing guidance and to highlight pages that are most appropriate to those working under hybrid working arrangements. These can be found at EIM31801, EIM31802 and EIM31803.
HMRC has made amendments to guidance on the tax treatment of certain homeworking costs and equipment, as well as the homeworking deduction, to provide certainty of its view on the application of such rules under hybrid working arrangements. The guidance at EIM21611, EIM01471, EIM01472, EIM32790, EIM32795 and EIM32810 has been amended.
Cycle to work
Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in December 2020 the UK government announced a time-limited easement. This was for employees who had joined an employer-provided cycling scheme and received a cycle or cycling safety equipment on or before 20 December 2020. Employees who joined a scheme from 21 December 2020 would need to meet all the normal conditions of the Cycle to Work scheme. Where eligible, employees would not have to meet the ’qualifying journeys’ condition until after 5 April 2022.
The rules of the scheme have not changed. From 5 April 2022, all employees on an existing cycling scheme will need to meet the normal conditions, including the ’qualifying journeys’ condition.
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