What Expenses Can Be Claimed When Working From Home?

In normal times, your employees’ business expense claims were straightforward: travel and subsistence. Perhaps the occasional claim for sandwiches from the supermarket when organising catering for a working lunch.

Of course, these are far from normal times. Consequently, it’s likely you’re going to be seeing some pretty unusual expenses in the coming weeks and months.

Here are some of the more unusual items we’ve seen coming through recently and how employers are handling them.

Office Equipment

Adjustments to your expense policy may need to consider new and unusual items which may be seen as essential office equipment during lockdown. Bringing plants into the home is frequently being suggested as a way of maintaining mental health during lockdown, but does your policy allow for an employee to claim for a houseplant for their desk at home?

Claims for printer paper, ink cartridges, pens and so on are not the stuff of normal expense claims – but you may see more of these now.

The government has advised that as long as office items like this are going to be used mainly for business, they’re non-taxable. If they will have significant private use, they are taxable. Ultimately, it’s up to the business to decide what it will and will not allow to be claimed and you may want to encourage employees to get pre-approval from managers in the interim.

It’s worth bearing in mind that Amazon is the obvious place for employees to go to place many of their orders. You probably already audit Amazon orders pretty closely to stop unlikely things slipping through, but you may want to step this up to the next level at the moment just in case. Remind employees to spend responsibly – and to keep work orders and home orders separate to make life easier.

Amazon also offers a “wish list” option which employees can use to create a “purchase request” if you don’t currently use a system like SAP Concur which offers purchase request functionality. 

Subscriptions

Employees will have had access to software such as Microsoft Office on their desktop PC in the office.

But if they don’t have access to this software at home and aren’t able to take their desktops home, they may need to take out a subscription so they do. Other subscriptions that are being claimed include online meeting software such as Zoom to keep in touch with colleagues and project management software to keep teams in the loop.

We are also seeing expense claims for industry journals. Again, this would have been unusual before but it makes perfect sense now. After all, the single copy that arrives in the office now won’t get around to everyone quickly enough for the news to be current when it arrives with the last people on the circulation list.

Do you provide gym membership as an employee perk? If yes, then can an employee claim for a subscription to an online exercise class now gyms are closed? What about a yoga mat so they can take the class with the right equipment? These will all be things to look out for.
 

Entertainment and Food Expenses

Face-to-face client entertainment and subsistence expenses may have fallen off the radar at the moment. But employees will still need to keep in touch with clients and maintain relationships. We have heard of employees using food delivery apps such as Deliveroo to have virtual meals with clients. Different companies are taking different approaches to this, adapting their policies and checks to suit.
 

Travel and Accommodation Expenses

You might think that travel and accommodation expenses are ones you won’t be seeing for a while.

It’s certainly true that travel expenses have fallen dramatically – according to the Global Business Travel Association, 98% of companies worldwide have cancelled or suspended all international travel and 92% have cancelled or suspended all domestic travel.

But there may still be circumstances where employees need to travel. In these cases, we are seeing companies change their policies to fulfil their duty of care. For example, where public transport would previously have had to be used to travel around a city, a taxi fare is now being passed. Further information can be found here. 

Also bear in mind that if an employee has to self-isolate, but can’t do so in their own home, you can reimburse hotel expenses and subsistence costs. But note that these expenses will be taxable.

Sources of Further Information About Expenses When WFH

If you are looking for guidance on what’s OK and what isn’t, the Government has provided information on allowable expenses when employees are working from home due to Covid-19.

If you need a reminder of the standard rules, they’re at www.gov.uk/employer-reporting-expenses-benefits.

You might also like to check out our eBook, Frequently Asked Questions on Managing Travel, Expenses and Invoices.

And of course, if you’re in any doubt about the expenses you are reimbursing, or are simply looking for guidance, we’d be happy to have a no-obligation chat with you. Call us on 01628 761100.