HMRC has scrapped working from home tax relief for employees
From 6 April 2026, employees can no longer claim tax relief for working from home directly from HMRC. That includes the flat £6 a week allowance many people used to claim without needing to keep a single receipt. The relief was available up to 5 April 2026, and for the 2026/27 tax year onward that self serve claim simply doesn’t exist any more. Broadband tax relief is one of the first casualties.
The change applies whether working from home is your own choice or a contractual requirement. There is no version of the employee self claim that survives it.
If part of your reasoning for switching or upgrading broadband was “I can claim some of it back”, this changes the maths.
Can I still backdate a claim for last year?
Yes. If you were working from home during the 2025/26 tax year or earlier and never claimed, you can still submit a backdated claim, subject to HMRC’s standard four year time limit. It won’t help with this year’s bill, but it’s worth doing if you genuinely qualified and missed it.
Backdated claims use the rules as they stood at the time, so the flat £6 a week rate still applies retrospectively for the years it was available.
Will my employer reimburse my broadband bill instead?
They can, and this is now the main route, but there are conditions and they don’t have to.
An employer can pay up to £6 a week, or £26 a month, free of income tax and National Insurance, where there is a formal homeworking agreement in place. That last part matters: it is not simply a matter of asking. If you work from home regularly and there is no written arrangement, getting one agreed is the step that unlocks the payment.
The catch for broadband specifically: if you already had a home broadband connection before you started working from home, HMRC generally doesn’t treat the standing monthly line rental as an allowable extra cost, since you’d be paying for it regardless. It’s the genuinely additional cost, like a second line installed purely for work, that has a clearer path to reimbursement.
Self employed workers still have more flexibility
Self employed workers are in a better position, and this part of the rules hasn’t changed at all. You can claim a reasonable business use proportion of your broadband as an expense through your self assessment return, based on how much you genuinely use it for work versus home life.
A dedicated business only connection makes the claim more straightforward to justify, since there’s no personal use split to argue over. A shared household connection needs a fair, defensible proportion rather than a guess.
What to actually do about your broadband bill now
If you’re an employee and the self serve relief is gone, the honest answer is that the tax angle on broadband has mostly closed for you going forward. That makes it more worth checking whether your broadband deal itself is competitive, since you won’t be offsetting a chunk of it through your tax return any more.
Ask your employer directly whether they’ll put a homeworking agreement in place and cover the flat rate, or a work only connection. Some will, especially if home working is a contractual requirement rather than a personal choice.
It’s also worth checking the connection itself is actually up to the job, tax relief or not. Video calls and cloud backups lean hard on upload speed specifically, which standard fibre packages don’t always prioritise. Our home working broadband guide covers what to look for if calls keep freezing at the worst moment.
Switching broadband deal is worth doing at the same time
If you’re reviewing costs anyway, it’s a sensible moment to check whether you’re still in contract, and what happens if you’re not. Households that drift onto a standard rate after their fixed deal ends are often the ones paying the most for the least, tax relief aside entirely.
Our no contract broadband guide covers what your options look like if you’re out of contract and free to move without an exit fee standing in the way. With the relief off the table for most employees, a cheaper deal is now the more reliable saving.
Broadband tax relief at a glance
- Employee self claims to HMRC ended on 5 April 2026, for both choice and contractual home working.
- Backdated claims for 2025/26 and earlier are still allowed, within four years.
- Employers can still pay £6 a week, or £26 a month, tax free, where a formal homeworking agreement exists.
- An existing personal broadband line usually isn’t an allowable extra cost.
- Self employed workers can still claim a fair business use proportion, unchanged.
| Broadband tax relief, post April 2026 | Position |
|---|---|
| Employee self claim to HMRC | Ended 5 April 2026, no exceptions |
| Backdated claim, 2025/26 or earlier | Still allowed, four year limit |
| Employer reimbursement, flat rate | £6 a week or £26 a month, tax free, needs a homeworking agreement |
| Employer reimbursement, existing personal line | Generally not an allowable extra cost |
| Self employed business use proportion | Still claimable via self assessment, unchanged |
Frequently asked questions about broadband tax relief
- Do I need receipts to backdate a claim?
- For the flat £6 a week rate, no evidence is needed. If you’re claiming actual costs instead, you’ll need to show what you spent.
- Does this change affect self employed broadband claims too?
- No, the self employed business expense route through self assessment is unaffected by the change to employee relief.
- Can my employer refuse to reimburse my broadband at all?
- Yes, reimbursement is at their discretion unless your contract or a workplace policy says otherwise. The tax free treatment also depends on a formal homeworking agreement being in place.
- Is the £6 a week flat rate enough to cover a typical broadband bill?
- Usually not on its own, since most broadband deals cost more than that, but it can still offset part of a genuinely additional work related cost.
- Does it matter whether I chose to work from home or was told to?
- Not for the employee self claim, which has gone either way. It can matter for whether your employer agrees to a homeworking arrangement and reimburses you.
The tax relief door has closed for most employees, which makes the deal underneath your broadband bill more important than the small print used to be. Worth a proper look either way.
Sources
- TaxAssist Accountants, Working from home relief abolished: what can employees claim instead. The 6 April 2026 abolition date, that it covers both choice and contractual home working, the £6 a week and £26 a month employer rates, the homeworking agreement condition, the four year backdating limit, and the unchanged position for the self employed.
- NHS Employers, Working from home tax relief to be abolished. Employer side confirmation of the change.
Checked 24 September 2026. This is general information, not tax advice. Your own position depends on your circumstances, and HMRC or an accountant is the place to confirm a specific claim.
