Can I claim a mechanic tax rebate every year?

You can claim a mechanic tax rebate every year, at the end of the financial year. The UK’s tax year runs from the 6^th April of one year, to the 5^th April of the next year.

The decision to claim is yours to make however the value of your receipt evidence should decide if making a claim every year is necessary. If you have a year where you have only spent £50 on tools it wouldn’t normally be worth claiming assuming you have had your tax code adjusted with the basic tax code allowance.

HMRC checks that you have earned enough to pay income tax as one of the eligibility criteria for getting a mechanic tax rebate. Once this is confirmed, they then process your tax rebate claim, which should include all of the tax allowances and reliefs you are entitled to.

What happens if I forget to claim?

If you have missed claiming for a few years all is not lost. Your mechanics tax rebate can be backdated and you may know some mechanics who prefer to wait and save up their receipts to claim for a few years all at once.

This means that you get a larger sum, but you do not receive additional tax relief. You are simply getting the accumulated total of the previous four years’ tax rebate at once.