Working From Home Fuel Allowance

[MattMoore]

Evening all,

My brother has been working from home for a while, but due to his almost 3 year old son running riot he hasn't been productive enough there. He is now working from our Mums house for 3 days a week.
Hes told me that he receives a fuel allowance for working from home, and I'm curious as to just how much that could be. Hes giving Mum some money, but I don't feel it covers everything he uses. For reference, he works in IT, updating the companies website for a well known blue chip company.

Thanks

Matt

[randlemarcus]

Probably a percentage of the bills for the number of rooms in house, i.e ten rooms, 10%, as on ewill be designated a study.

It won't be a lot, put it that way.

[fergywales]

So he's running a laptop/pc, router, a landline (maybe) and a mobile charger. How much is he paying per month?

[Deva Link]

HMRC allow £3 week without asking for specific evidence of costs.

[MattMoore]

As well as PC usage there is also the additional 8 hours of heating the house when it wouldn't normally be heated (I know now its not an issue now, but it has been on for the past few months) tea/coffee making, toaster, microwave plus TV/radio all of the time.
I'm sorry if it does come across that I'm being petty, its just that he is very selfish and very tight with his money. I don't want my Mum to be out of pocket because of his tightness. For example, he took my Mum out for dinner for Mothering Sunday, she asked if he would like to use that weeks money for her part of the bill and he accepted.

Thanks

Matt

[Deva Link]

Is your Mum out during the day? Does she need the money your brother might giver her?

Why don't you just ask if he's paying his way? I'd ask my brothers, although my mother would find some way of giving the money back, as your mother did. Pehaps you can judge the amount he's paying from the likely size of the dinner bill?

[Eric Mc]

Employed or self employed?

If employed, is the working from home compulsory as part of his employment?

[MattMoore]

Eric,

He is employed, and as his local office was closed just before Christmas 2010 working from home now forms his entire employment.

[fergywales]

From what you've said, I'd have thought maybe paying £25 a month towards utility bills more than covered his usage.

When does the almost 3 year old begin pre-school, and is he going to return to working from his own home then?

As an aside, lack of productivity when working from home rarely stems from one cause. Maybe he's just a bit carp at concentrating on the job

[Eric Mc]

MattMoore said:

Eric,

He is employed, and as his local office was closed just before Christmas 2010 working from home now forms his entire employment.

If the working from home is a compulsory condition of his employment, then he is allowed claim for a "work related" portion of domestic costs - such as light and heat, council tax, water charges, insurances etc.
A claim such as this will have NO impact on his liability to business rates.
There have been a few cases where this has now been established.

Also, there should be no implications for Capital Gains Tax.

If he is "commuting" to someone else's property to carry out his work, then obviously, he isn't woerking from home so I don't see how he could claim for any domestic costs he is incurring by working at home. After all, he ISN'T working from home, is he. He's working from someone else's premises.

I would not think that he could claim for travel costs to and from that premises either. Is it not just another form of "commuting", which is never allowed for tax purposes?