As a teacher you can claim a tax rebate for lots of your work related costs. One of them is called working from home tax relief.
We’ve been helping teachers and other other education professionals for many years, and are often successful in claiming back tax relief on expenses where others have failed.
The current regulations generally state that teachers are not entitled to claim for any costs incurred whilst working at home because it is a choice, rather than a requirement of the job. It’s stated that teachers have access to the school facilities at either end of the official school day so are simply making a personal decision to do this work at home.
While this is true, teachers usually use this time in school to do things like display work, resource preparation and meetings with other staff which requires access to the premises. The bulk of other paperwork and research cannot be completed during the hours the school building is open and therefore has to be done at home.
There are several points which dispute the idea that ‘individual choice’ is the only reason for home working.
Before and After School Clubs
Increasing numbers of teachers are asked to allow their classrooms to be used for breakfast or after school clubs to meet targets of ‘wrap-around’ care. This means they are no longer a quiet space in which to concentrate.
Week-end working
Most teachers complete their weekly planning and assessment paperwork at the week-end when there is no access to school premises.
Holiday Access
School buildings are often not open to staff during school holiday periods due to big cleaning jobs, the site manager being on holiday, updates to computer servers or building works being done. Often this means staff can be in the school buildings but have reduced facilities. Such as no computer access, no water (which means no toilet!) or no heating. Therefore it becomes necessary to work at home. Teachers have to use ‘holiday’ periods to do subject co-ordinator work, write reports or physically put their classrooms back together after cleaning or construction work so they are ready for the children.
Restricted Heating
Many schools have heating systems that are centrally controlled. This means that they are timed to come on and off to heat the building when the children are present. If heating goes off at 4.00pm in the middle of winter, Victorian buildings or the ‘temporary for 30 years’ classrooms become very cold very quickly. It is quite difficult to type efficiently wearing gloves, so most staff choose to go home and use their own resources.
