Lady completing form

Claiming tax relief on employment expenses

3 February, 2023

Taxpayers (and their agents) who wish to claim tax relief on employment expenses can do so using a P87 form. HMRC has recently shared an update with us about information that must be included this form. Any P87 form that does not include this information will be rejected.

These changes follow earlier regulations that took effect from 7 May 2022, which require claimants to use an approved version of the P87 form as designed by HMRC to make a claim.

HMRC’s update is as follows:

“We previously alerted you to additional mandatory information requirements on the P87 form (Income Tax relief for employment expenses) that will take effect from 21 December 2022. 

“To make these additional requirements clear for our customers we have updated the P87 form to include the following text changes:  

  • mandatory fields have been marked with an asterisk 
  • the form reference has changed  
  • The section ‘About this form’ has been updated 

 “Changes to the form have been kept to a minimum and have been made to assist completion of the form. The guidance notes that accompany the P87 form have also been updated.  

“P87 claims received on or after 21 December will need to be submitted on this latest form and should include all the mandatory information.  

“To remind you, the additional P87 mandatory information requirements are:  

  • all the details in section 1, except for the title and contact phone number which are optional 
  • employer PAYE reference number in section 2 - your clients can provide you with this from their Personal Tax Account, the HMRC app, P45 or P60  
  • type of industry in section 2 if the claim includes flat rate expenses 

 “Any P87 claims that do not include the mandatory information or have not been submitted using the latest form will be rejected.