The flat rate, and the 25 hours a month test
Simplified expenses give a flat monthly amount for working from home. The rate depends on the hours you work at home each month, and it is only available from 25 hours a month upwards. Below that, there is no flat rate. The bands are unchanged for 2026-27.
| Flat rate | Hours you work from home |
|---|---|
| £10 a month | 25 to 50 hours a month |
| £18 a month | 51 to 100 hours a month |
| £26 a month | 101 or more hours a month |
There are no receipts to keep for the flat rate claim; the hours are what the rate turns on, so the hours are worth a note.
Phone and broadband are claimed separately
The flat rate does not include telephone or internet. Those are claimed on top, as the business proportion of the actual bill. On a £200 phone bill where £130 is personal use, the claim is £70.
If the private use of the phone or broadband is not significant, the full cost can be claimed. Where it is significant, work out the business share and claim only that. The flat rate does not prevent a separate claim for council tax, home insurance or mortgage interest either, where the business proportion can be identified.
Whatever route you take, the cost still has to be incurred for the purposes of the trade, and where a bill is part business and part private, only the business proportion can be deducted.
The alternative: a business proportion of actual costs
Instead of the flat rate you can claim the business part of the actual cost of using your home as an office: rent, rates, power, insurance and security. Only the business proportion is allowable, and you need a basis for the split that you could explain if you were asked, with the bills kept to back it up.
The flat rate is quicker and needs no receipts, but it is a fixed amount, so the claim is capped at £26 a month however your bills move. The actual-cost route takes more work and can give a bigger claim where the household costs are high.
Hours decide the flat rate and nothing else. If you work from home less than 25 hours a month, the flat rate is unavailable, and the actual-cost route is the one that reflects the bills you are paying.
What you cannot claim
Not everything with your home address on it is a business expense.
- Travel between home and a regular workplace. It counts as commuting, not a business journey.
- Non-business use of your premises, phone or internet. Only the business proportion goes through the books.
- Ordinary meals and food for sustenance, which is private spending rather than a cost of the trade. Meals on an overnight business trip are treated differently and can be claimed.
The same rule decides the mixed items. Where a cost is part business and part private, the private part is not claimable and only the business proportion can be deducted.
Where the claim goes
Allowable expenses are reported on your Self Assessment return. You do not send proof with the return, but the records behind the figure have to be kept, so the home office claim should be one you can rebuild from your own records later.
If you are in Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, the same expense figures feed your quarterly updates through the year rather than being worked out once at the end. Capturing the home costs as they arise, with the phone split and the hours recorded, keeps those updates quick to file.
Nothing changes because the work happens at a kitchen table rather than an office. The same test of business purpose applies to every line of it.