A limited company can reimburse its director for the extra household costs of working from home. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) sets a guideline rate of £6 per week, or £26 per month for monthly paid employees, and it has sat at that level since 6 April 2020. Pay that amount and the director keeps no receipts at all: HMRC accepts it without evidence of the underlying spend. Pay more and the rule changes, because the company then needs evidence that justifies the higher figure. The guideline rate is a convenience, not a ceiling.
Two things to leave alone. The simplified expenses rate based on hours worked at home belongs to sole traders, not to companies. And the route where a director claims tax relief personally closed for the tax year starting 6 April 2026, although four earlier years can still be claimed. Company reimbursement is untouched.
Can a limited company director claim use of home as office?
Yes, but read the direction of travel carefully, because it decides everything else. You are not a sole trader putting a share of the gas bill through a tax return. You are an officeholder of a company, and the company reimburses you for the additional household costs you take on by working at home. Money moves from the business to you, not the other way round.
HMRC's Employment Income Manual is explicit that an employer can agree to make this payment: "you can agree to a payment of £6 per week or £26 per month for monthly paid employees" (HMRC, EIM01476, guidance in place since 6 April 2020). Director and employee are treated the same way here.
The word "additional" is doing real work. The claim covers costs that go up because you work at home — the extra heat, the extra light, the extra power. It does not cover costs you would pay anyway whether you worked at home, in a client's office or on a beach. That distinction sits underneath everything below, and it is the same logic that governs what a limited company can claim as an expense more generally.
How much can the company pay without keeping receipts?
£6 a week, or £26 a month if you run monthly payroll. That is the number, and the attraction is administrative rather than financial: HMRC states that "if the £6 guideline rate is paid the employee does not have to keep any records to demonstrate the additional expenditure" (HMRC, EIM01476). No meter readings, no spreadsheet apportioning the electricity bill by floor area, no argument about which room counts.
Here is how the two routes compare once you put them side by side.
Route
What the company pays
Evidence needed
Guideline rate, weekly paid
£6 per week
None for that amount
Guideline rate, monthly paid
£26 per month
None for that amount
Above the guideline rate
The additional costs actually incurred
Evidence justifying the higher figure
For most directors running a small company from a spare room, the guideline rate is the sensible default. It is small, it is clean, and it never generates a conversation with HMRC. The reimbursement is a company cost like any other, which is part of how expenses reduce your Corporation Tax bill.
Not sure whether your setup qualifies before you put a standing payment through payroll?
What if the actual costs are higher than the flat rate?
Then pay more. HMRC says so directly: "The £6 per week guideline rate… is not a maximum. Greater amounts can be paid where the employer provides evidence to justify them" (HMRC, EIM01476). This is the part most home-office articles skip, and it matters for anyone whose work genuinely loads the house — long hours, equipment that draws power, a room heated all day in winter while the rest of the property sits cold.
The trade is simple. The moment the company pays above the guideline rate, the convenience disappears and the burden shifts to the business to show its working. You need to be able to demonstrate what the additional cost actually was: bills before and after, a defensible basis for splitting household use from business use, and a record of how the figure was reached. We will not put a "typical" number in front of you, because there isn't one that survives contact with a real house, a real tariff and a real working pattern.
Two practical cautions. First, resist the pull of the sole trader rules. Simplified expenses, where a self-employed person claims a flat monthly amount based on hours worked at home, is a different regime for a different taxpayer and has no application to a company reimbursing its director. Mixing the two is the classic error on this topic.
Second, a payment the company cannot justify is not automatically safe just because it went through the books. If the evidence is thin, you are into the territory of when a reimbursement becomes a taxable benefit, and the fix is harder after the fact than it would have been to document the figure at the time.
Why can't you just claim tax relief yourself as an employee anymore?
Because that route closed. From the tax year starting 6 April 2026, gov.uk's working-from-home guidance states that "you will not be able to claim tax relief for working from home". If you previously claimed relief through your own tax account, that door is shut for the current year. What remains is backdating: "you can still claim for the 4 previous tax years" (gov.uk, working at home guidance).
Keep the two mechanisms separate in your head, because they are often written about as if they were one thing. The employee's personal claim is a deduction the individual asks HMRC for. The company reimbursement is a payment the business makes to the director. Only the first has closed. The second, governed by EIM01476, still works exactly as it did.
It is also worth knowing that the personal route was never as wide as people assumed. Eligibility turned on necessity, not preference. Qualifying circumstances included where "your job requires you to live far away from your office" or where "your employer does not have an office". It specifically did not cover the common case where "your employment contract lets you work from home some or all of the time" — choosing to work from home was never enough. That history explains why company reimbursement is now the practical option for most directors rather than a clever workaround.
It depends entirely on which of the two routes you are on, and the gap between them is wide.
At the guideline rate, HMRC's position removes the record-keeping burden from the director for the amount itself. You still want the payment to look like what it is: a consistent amount, paid on a regular cycle, recorded in the company's books as a reimbursement of additional household costs rather than as extra pay dropped in at year end. A short written agreement that the company will reimburse £6 per week, or £26 per month, dated and kept with your company records, costs nothing and answers the obvious question before anyone asks it.
Above the guideline rate, you are building a file. The company is the one that has to justify the amount, so the evidence needs to exist before the payment does, not be reconstructed under pressure two years later. That means the bills, the method you used to isolate the additional element, and a note explaining the reasoning.
The honest summary is that the higher route buys you a bigger reimbursement at the cost of real administration. For a director claiming a modest amount, the guideline rate usually wins on effort alone. For someone running a genuine home-based operation with heavy household costs, the file may well be worth building — and that is the point to get a second opinion rather than guess.
Home-office reimbursement is a small piece of a bigger picture: how you pay yourself, what the company covers, and what stays personal. Our accountancy support connects you with partner accountants who deal with these decisions every week.
Can I claim £6 a week if I only work from home one day a week?
The guideline rate is expressed as a weekly or monthly amount for employees working at home. Whether your pattern supports paying it in full is a judgement about your circumstances, and it is worth checking with an accountant before you set up a standing payment.
Is the £6 per week rate going up?
The guideline rate of £6 per week, or £26 per month for monthly paid employees, has applied since 6 April 2020 and is the figure in HMRC's manual as at September 2026 (HMRC, EIM01476).
Can the company pay me more than £6 a week?
Yes. HMRC states the rate is not a maximum and greater amounts can be paid where the employer provides evidence to justify them.
I missed claiming tax relief in earlier years. Is it too late?
Not necessarily. Although the employee route closed from the tax year starting 6 April 2026, gov.uk confirms you can still claim for the four previous tax years.
Can I use the sole trader hours-based flat rate instead?
No. Simplified expenses belong to the self-employed regime. A limited company reimbursing its director uses the rules set out in EIM01476.
Does claiming use of home as office affect selling my house?
Any interaction with the tax position on your main residence depends on how the space is used and is outside the scope of the HMRC guidance covered here. Raise it with an accountant before you commit to an arrangement.
A limited company can reimburse its director for the extra household costs of working from home. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) sets a guideline rate of £6 per week, or £26 per month for monthly paid employees, and it has sat at that level since 6 April 2020. Pay that amount and the director keeps no receipts at all: HMRC accepts it without evidence of the underlying spend. Pay more and the rule changes, because the company then needs evidence that justifies the higher figure. The guideline rate is a convenience, not a ceiling.
Two things to leave alone. The simplified expenses rate based on hours worked at home belongs to sole traders, not to companies. And the route where a director claims tax relief personally closed for the tax year starting 6 April 2026, although four earlier years can still be claimed. Company reimbursement is untouched.
Can a limited company director claim use of home as office?
Yes, but read the direction of travel carefully, because it decides everything else. You are not a sole trader putting a share of the gas bill through a tax return. You are an officeholder of a company, and the company reimburses you for the additional household costs you take on by working at home. Money moves from the business to you, not the other way round.
HMRC's Employment Income Manual is explicit that an employer can agree to make this payment: "you can agree to a payment of £6 per week or £26 per month for monthly paid employees" (HMRC, EIM01476, guidance in place since 6 April 2020). Director and employee are treated the same way here.
The word "additional" is doing real work. The claim covers costs that go up because you work at home — the extra heat, the extra light, the extra power. It does not cover costs you would pay anyway whether you worked at home, in a client's office or on a beach. That distinction sits underneath everything below, and it is the same logic that governs what a limited company can claim as an expense more generally.
How much can the company pay without keeping receipts?
£6 a week, or £26 a month if you run monthly payroll. That is the number, and the attraction is administrative rather than financial: HMRC states that "if the £6 guideline rate is paid the employee does not have to keep any records to demonstrate the additional expenditure" (HMRC, EIM01476). No meter readings, no spreadsheet apportioning the electricity bill by floor area, no argument about which room counts.
Here is how the two routes compare once you put them side by side.
Route
What the company pays
Evidence needed
Guideline rate, weekly paid
£6 per week
None for that amount
Guideline rate, monthly paid
£26 per month
None for that amount
Above the guideline rate
The additional costs actually incurred
Evidence justifying the higher figure
For most directors running a small company from a spare room, the guideline rate is the sensible default. It is small, it is clean, and it never generates a conversation with HMRC. The reimbursement is a company cost like any other, which is part of how expenses reduce your Corporation Tax bill.
Not sure whether your setup qualifies before you put a standing payment through payroll?
What if the actual costs are higher than the flat rate?
Then pay more. HMRC says so directly: "The £6 per week guideline rate… is not a maximum. Greater amounts can be paid where the employer provides evidence to justify them" (HMRC, EIM01476). This is the part most home-office articles skip, and it matters for anyone whose work genuinely loads the house — long hours, equipment that draws power, a room heated all day in winter while the rest of the property sits cold.
The trade is simple. The moment the company pays above the guideline rate, the convenience disappears and the burden shifts to the business to show its working. You need to be able to demonstrate what the additional cost actually was: bills before and after, a defensible basis for splitting household use from business use, and a record of how the figure was reached. We will not put a "typical" number in front of you, because there isn't one that survives contact with a real house, a real tariff and a real working pattern.
Two practical cautions. First, resist the pull of the sole trader rules. Simplified expenses, where a self-employed person claims a flat monthly amount based on hours worked at home, is a different regime for a different taxpayer and has no application to a company reimbursing its director. Mixing the two is the classic error on this topic.
Second, a payment the company cannot justify is not automatically safe just because it went through the books. If the evidence is thin, you are into the territory of when a reimbursement becomes a taxable benefit, and the fix is harder after the fact than it would have been to document the figure at the time.
Why can't you just claim tax relief yourself as an employee anymore?
Because that route closed. From the tax year starting 6 April 2026, gov.uk's working-from-home guidance states that "you will not be able to claim tax relief for working from home". If you previously claimed relief through your own tax account, that door is shut for the current year. What remains is backdating: "you can still claim for the 4 previous tax years" (gov.uk, working at home guidance).
Keep the two mechanisms separate in your head, because they are often written about as if they were one thing. The employee's personal claim is a deduction the individual asks HMRC for. The company reimbursement is a payment the business makes to the director. Only the first has closed. The second, governed by EIM01476, still works exactly as it did.
It is also worth knowing that the personal route was never as wide as people assumed. Eligibility turned on necessity, not preference. Qualifying circumstances included where "your job requires you to live far away from your office" or where "your employer does not have an office". It specifically did not cover the common case where "your employment contract lets you work from home some or all of the time" — choosing to work from home was never enough. That history explains why company reimbursement is now the practical option for most directors rather than a clever workaround.
It depends entirely on which of the two routes you are on, and the gap between them is wide.
At the guideline rate, HMRC's position removes the record-keeping burden from the director for the amount itself. You still want the payment to look like what it is: a consistent amount, paid on a regular cycle, recorded in the company's books as a reimbursement of additional household costs rather than as extra pay dropped in at year end. A short written agreement that the company will reimburse £6 per week, or £26 per month, dated and kept with your company records, costs nothing and answers the obvious question before anyone asks it.
Above the guideline rate, you are building a file. The company is the one that has to justify the amount, so the evidence needs to exist before the payment does, not be reconstructed under pressure two years later. That means the bills, the method you used to isolate the additional element, and a note explaining the reasoning.
The honest summary is that the higher route buys you a bigger reimbursement at the cost of real administration. For a director claiming a modest amount, the guideline rate usually wins on effort alone. For someone running a genuine home-based operation with heavy household costs, the file may well be worth building — and that is the point to get a second opinion rather than guess.
Home-office reimbursement is a small piece of a bigger picture: how you pay yourself, what the company covers, and what stays personal. Our accountancy support connects you with partner accountants who deal with these decisions every week.
Can I claim £6 a week if I only work from home one day a week?
The guideline rate is expressed as a weekly or monthly amount for employees working at home. Whether your pattern supports paying it in full is a judgement about your circumstances, and it is worth checking with an accountant before you set up a standing payment.
Is the £6 per week rate going up?
The guideline rate of £6 per week, or £26 per month for monthly paid employees, has applied since 6 April 2020 and is the figure in HMRC's manual as at September 2026 (HMRC, EIM01476).
Can the company pay me more than £6 a week?
Yes. HMRC states the rate is not a maximum and greater amounts can be paid where the employer provides evidence to justify them.
I missed claiming tax relief in earlier years. Is it too late?
Not necessarily. Although the employee route closed from the tax year starting 6 April 2026, gov.uk confirms you can still claim for the four previous tax years.
Can I use the sole trader hours-based flat rate instead?
No. Simplified expenses belong to the self-employed regime. A limited company reimbursing its director uses the rules set out in EIM01476.
Does claiming use of home as office affect selling my house?
Any interaction with the tax position on your main residence depends on how the space is used and is outside the scope of the HMRC guidance covered here. Raise it with an accountant before you commit to an arrangement.
