tax refunds, what can teachers claim for

top tip: I have phoned up my tax office to say can I get an increased tax allowance for paying my NUT subscriptions, a helpful women at the tax office looked at a list and said yes, I will recieve a tax refund of £46 as a result of paying my NUT subs. I did not have to fill in a form or send proof. Does anybody know of any other allowances teachers can claim for?

 

top tip: I have phoned up my tax office to say can I get an increased tax allowance for paying my NUT subscriptions, a helpful women at the tax office looked at a list and said yes, I will recieve a tax refund of £46 as a result of paying my NUT subs. I did not have to fill in a form or send proof. Does anybody know of any other allowances teachers can claim for?

 

Yes, you can also claim the tax back on your GTC fees. If you've only claimed tax back on this last year's union subs, then you can go 5 years back so you don't have to stop there!

 

I claim a sixth of all household bills due to having a room in my house as an 'office'. They may have clamped down on this now though - have been claiming for the last 14 years!

 

I think you can only do that if you have to work at home (meaning that there is no option, for example, to work in the school building before/after the school day).
I work for the OU, and as we do have to work from home, we can claim a flat rate of £3 per week for the nine months of the course. (Those teaching on overlapping courses have sometimes been told they can only claim up to 48 weeks as they must have 4 weeks holiday.) I think this may have replaced more complicated rules on claiming for home office costs.

 

I looked into that option when I started a student rental property. I could claim for a poertion of Community charge, fuel bills etc based on the proportion of the house that my office constitutes BUT when I eventually sell the property I would have to pay tax on the same fraction of any profit. The tax man advised me that it could be a costly venture in the long term for reduced tax int he short term.
The main Tax Reliefs for teachers are trhe GTC fee and the allowable fraction of Union subs. You can currently claim tax back on those expenses that you incurred from the 2005-2006 tax year (6th April 2005- 5th April 2006).
Your Union should be able to give you a run-down of your historic payments and details of the fraction that can be offset against tax (two thirds of NUT, nine tenths of ATL).
tHE gtc WEBSITE HAS A DOWNLOADABLE FORM FOR TAX RELIEF (DOWNLOAD ONE FOR EACH TAX YEAR THAT YOU HAVE PAID AND NOT YET CLAIMED TAX RELIEF).
If you teach PE at any point in a tax year and have to provide, repair and launder your own kit, you can alim a Uniform allowance of £60 for the 2011/12 tax year. 2020/11 =£60. 2009/10 = £60. 2008/09 = £60. 2007/08= £45. 2006/07=£45
If claiming for all those years, you'd get tax relief on £330, making a rebate of £66 if your highest tax rate is 20% and £132 if you are a 40% Higher Rate taxpayer.
You can't claim the Uniform allowance if your employer provides laundry facilities and you choose not to use them.

 

Jubillee - does that only apply to PE? As a food teacher I am constantly washing clothes due to food being spilled and the awful smell of onions that always gets on clothes. Also get clothes and shoes ruined often in practical lessons. Just thought I'd ask as I've never heard of the PE thing before.

 

It's a Uniform Allowance that mainly applies to PE staff in teaching.
Your ability to claim as a Food Tech teacher would be unlikely to succeed as they will know that laundry facilities will be in your teaching area for the cleaning of tea towels, discloths, oven gloves, pupil aprons and your aprons.
Your ordinary clothing is not a uniform.
A Food Tech supply teacher would have a better chance of claiming the allowance as you can't make use of the laundry facilities for your overalls/aprons if only employed for the day.