As lockdown restrictions are imposed once again, and the Government advice is that those who can work from home, should, the CIPP’s Policy and research team wanted to assess if individuals are benefitting from the homeworking allowance that they are entitled to. The homeworking allowance means that individuals who have been instructed to work from home can claim tax relief on £6 per week in relation to expenses incurred from working from home. This was the amount implemented from 6 April 2020 onwards. The relief is based on the rate at which an individual pays tax, so is somebody pays the 20% basic rate of tax, they would receive £1.20 per week in tax relief. Similarly, if a person pays the 40% rate of tax, then they would receive £2.40 per week in tax relief. Individuals may also claim tax relief on the actual amount of extra costs they have incurred as a result of working from home, but they would be required to produce evidence of those amounts in the form of receipts, bills or contracts.
In order to gauge the extent of the use of the tax relief, a question was posted on the CIPP’s News Online page, which asked:
“How have you benefitted from the homeworking allowance?”
The most popular response was for individuals who have claimed the £6 allowance via the dedicated online portal on Gov.UK, with 41% confirming that this is what they have done. The process takes minutes to complete, and once finished, an adjusted tax code is generated for the claimant. This is also forwarded to the individual’s employer to apply to their payroll record. This ties in with the news that within a matter of weeks of the portal being made available, over 54,000 individuals applied for the tax relief in this way. 25% of respondents stated that their employer does not pay the homeworking allowance or, indeed, for any additional costs incurred from homeworking. 18% revealed that they simply do not claim the relief. 8% of individuals confirmed that their employer pays the homeworking allowance alongside their standard pay, whilst 6% claimed for the relief themselves at the end of the tax year. The lowest response rate was attributed to those that claim for actual expenses incurred from home working, with just 2% of respondents confirming that this applied to them.
Back to Contents
New Quick Poll: The impact of the extension to the CJRS 11 November 2020
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, confirmed that there would be an extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), and that it would now be open until the end of March 2021, instead of closing, as originally intended, on 31 October 2020. Whilst this announcement was met favourably by both employers and employees facing the prospect of an inevitably tough Winter, the pace at which changes to Government measures have been made has proven to be somewhat challenging, to say the least, for payroll professionals. The CIPP’s Policy and research team want to assess the impact of the extension to the CJRS, and so has posted a new Quick Poll on the News Online page, which asks the question:
“How have the changes to Government measures to help businesses deal with coronavirus affected you?”
We understand that payroll professionals are extremely busy individuals, and are under immense pressure, particularly at the given time, but the Quick Poll will take less than a minute to respond to, and provides the opportunity for you to have your say. There may be businesses who were reliant on the pay out of the Job Retention Bonus (JRB) in February 2021, which has now been postponed as a result of the CJRS extension, or those that have no intention of accessing the extended CJRS, meaning that the rapid changes have had minimal to no impact on them.
Thank you in advance to all of those who take the time to respond to the CIPP’s latest Quick Poll.
Back to Contents
CIPP webcast: The extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
cipp.org.uk
Page 59 of 590
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker