Working From Home as a Barrister: Claiming Tax Relief

Last updated: 28 February 2026

Many barristers spend significant time working from home – preparing cases, drafting opinions, and conducting research outside chambers. If you use part of your home for professional work, you can claim tax relief on a proportion of your household running costs. The question is which method gives you the best result.

Can barristers claim for working from home?

Yes. HMRC allows self-employed barristers to claim a deduction for the business use of their home, provided the work carried out there is genuinely part of the trade. This covers preparation, drafting, research, and administrative tasks directly connected to your practice.

There are two methods available: the simplified flat-rate method and the actual cost method. You can switch between them from one tax year to the next, but you cannot mix them within the same year.

For a full list of what barristers can and cannot claim, see our barrister allowable expenses checklist.

HMRC’s simplified method: £6 per week (£312/year, no receipts needed)

The simplified expenses method lets you claim a flat rate based on the number of hours you work from home each month:

Most barristers who work from home regularly will fall into the top band, giving a deduction of £26 × 12 = £312 per year. The advantage is simplicity: no receipts, no apportionment calculations, and no risk of an HMRC challenge on the figures.

The disadvantage is obvious – £312 is modest. If your actual home office costs are higher (and they usually are), you are leaving money on the table.

Actual cost method: calculating the proportion

Under the actual cost method, you identify the total running costs of your home and claim the business proportion. The allowable costs include:

• Heating and lighting – gas, electricity
• Water rates (if metered)
• Council tax
• Home insurance (buildings and contents)
• Mortgage interest (interest only, not capital repayments) or rent
• Broadband and telephone (business proportion)
• Repairs and maintenance to the property (general, not specific to your office)
• Cleaning (proportion attributable to the office)

You then calculate the business proportion. HMRC accepts two common approaches:

1. Room-based: divide by the number of rooms (excluding bathrooms and kitchens). If you use 1 room of 5 as your office, the basic proportion is 1/5 = 20%.
2. Area-based: divide your office floor area by the total floor area of the property. A 12m² office in a 100m² home gives 12%.

You can further adjust for time. If you use the room for business 40 hours out of a notional 168-hour week (24% of the time), you might apply that time fraction to the room fraction. However, many practitioners simply use the room fraction without a time adjustment, and HMRC generally accepts this for a dedicated office.

For more detail on allowable expenses generally, see our guide to expenses for barristers: income tax and VAT.

Which method gives you more?

The table below compares the two methods for a typical barrister scenario:

For the majority of barristers, the actual cost method produces a significantly larger deduction. The simplified method is best suited to those who only occasionally work from home or who want zero record-keeping burden.

What counts as home office use for barristers

To claim, the work must be substantive professional activity. HMRC accepts:

• Drafting skeleton arguments, opinions, and advices
• Preparing for hearings and conferences
• Legal research
• Reviewing case papers and evidence
• Administrative work: billing, correspondence, tax records
• CPD study and preparation

What does not count: reading a brief on the sofa in the evening is not the same as dedicated home working. HMRC looks for regular, structured use of a defined workspace. A dedicated room or a clearly defined area within a room is strongest.

Internet, phone, and broadband

If you use your home broadband and phone for both personal and business purposes, you can claim the business proportion. A common and defensible approach is to claim 50% of broadband costs where you use the connection extensively for legal research, case management systems, and email.

If you have a separate business phone line or mobile used exclusively for practice, the full cost is deductible. For a personal mobile used partly for business, claim the business proportion of the contract – typically supported by reviewing call records for a sample month.

Furniture and equipment

Desks, office chairs, monitors, printers, and bookshelves purchased for your home office are deductible. Items costing under £1,000 can generally be claimed in full in the year of purchase under the annual investment allowance. Larger items attract capital allowances at the standard rates.

A computer used partly for personal purposes should be apportioned. If 80% of use is professional, claim 80% of the cost.

For the full picture on capital allowances and tax deductions for barristers, see our dedicated guide.

Worked example: barrister claiming home office

Sarah is a self-employed barrister. She uses one room of six in her home as a dedicated office. She works from home approximately 40 hours per week. Her annual household costs for 2025/26 are:

Simplified method: Sarah works over 101 hours per month from home → £26 × 12 = £312.

Actual cost method:

• Room proportion: 1/6 = 16.67%
• Business proportion of total costs: £11,260 × 16.67% = £1,877
• Add: broadband business uplift (50% of £480 already included, so no additional claim needed as it is within the room proportion)

Sarah claims £1,877 under the actual cost method – over six times the simplified amount. At a 40% marginal tax rate, that saves her £751 in tax compared to £125 under the flat rate.

From April 2026, barristers earning over £50,000 must file quarterly digital returns under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, making accurate record-keeping of home office costs even more important.

Record-keeping for home office claims

Whether you use the simplified or actual cost method, maintain these records:

• Simplified method: a contemporaneous log of hours worked from home each month
• Actual cost method: copies of all household bills, a floor plan or room count, and a note explaining your apportionment basis
• Both methods: keep records for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline

If HMRC opens an enquiry, the most common reason for disallowing home office claims is inadequate evidence of the proportion used for business. A simple floor plan with measurements and a brief note of your working pattern is usually sufficient.

Frequently asked questions

Does claiming home office expenses trigger a capital gains tax charge when I sell my home?

Not usually. Principal private residence relief covers your entire home provided the office room is also used for personal purposes (even occasionally). If a room is used exclusively for business with no personal use at all, HMRC could argue that portion is not covered by PPR relief. In practice, most barristers’ home offices have some dual use, so the risk is minimal.

Can I claim if I also have a desk in chambers?

Yes. Having a workspace in chambers does not prevent you from claiming for home working, provided you genuinely carry out substantive work at home. Many barristers prepare cases at home in the evenings and weekends even though they have a chambers desk.

Can pupil barristers claim home office costs?

Pupil barristers in self-employed practice (second six onwards) can claim on the same basis as any other self-employed barrister. During the employed first six, home working claims follow employed rules, which are more restrictive.

What if I move house during the tax year?

You calculate the claim separately for each property, based on the actual costs incurred at each address and the period you lived there. The simplified method applies per month, so you simply count the qualifying hours at whichever address you occupied.