Tax relief on uniforms and tools: £60 by default, £1,022 for pilots

Every year thousands of people in the UK wash a nurse's uniform, a mechanic's overalls or a security guard's tunic at home without knowing that part of that cost comes back. It does not come back as a payment into your account: it comes back as less tax. And you can claim for five years at once.

What exactly does the relief cover?

Cleaning, repairing or replacing a uniform or specialist clothing, and repairing or replacing the small tools you need to do your job. HMRC's own examples are scissors, an electric drill, overalls and safety boots.

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A uniform is a set of clothing that identifies you as having a certain occupation, such as a nurse or a police officer. Specialist clothing does not have to identify your job at all: overalls and safety boots qualify even though nobody can tell your profession from them.

What is excluded?

The initial cost of buying clothing for work. This is the single most common misunderstanding: the relief is for keeping the kit going, not for acquiring it.

Everyday clothing is excluded too, even when your employer insists on a particular design or colour. Black trousers and a white shirt worn to meet a dress code remain your own clothes.

There is a separate rule about laundry. If your employer provides a free laundering service and you choose not to use it and wash the uniform at home instead, you cannot claim. Personal protective equipment is also outside the scheme: under HMRC's rules your employer must either give you PPE free of charge or reimburse you in full for buying it.

How much can you claim?

There are two routes. The first is the actual amount you have spent, but then you must send copies of receipts or other evidence that you paid. The second, which most people use, is an agreed fixed sum known as a flat rate expense, and it needs no receipts at all.

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If your job is not on HMRC's list, the flat rate is £60 a year. For many occupations it is higher. From the list, last updated on 14 November 2024: pilots, co-pilots and uniformed flight deck crew £1,022; cabin crew £720; ambulance staff on active service £185; nurses, midwives, dental nurses, physiotherapists and healthcare assistants £125, plus £12 for shoes and £6 for tights or stockings where everyone wears the same colour and style; hospital porters, ward clerks, domestics and catering staff £125; police officers up to and including chief inspector, and community support officers, £140; laboratory staff, pharmacists and pharmacy assistants £80; uniformed prison officers £80; uniformed firefighters £80; joiners and carpenters £140; agriculture and forestry workers £100 each; bus and coach conductors and drivers £60; pipe fitters and plumbers £120.

What is it worth in cash?

The relief reduces the income your tax is charged on, not the tax itself. HMRC gives the arithmetic: claim a flat rate of £60 while paying tax at 20% and you pay £12 less. Claim £185 at the same rate and you pay £37 less.

The sums are modest, but you claim once and the relief keeps running, and back years arrive together. You can claim for the current tax year and the four previous tax years.

What if your employer pays some of the cost?

Then you deduct whatever your employer pays from the figure you claim. If your employer covers the cost in full, there is no relief to claim at all.

One more limit that people forget: you must have paid tax in the year you are claiming for, and the relief can never be more than the tax you actually paid that year.

How do you make the claim?

HMRC runs an online service that first checks whether you are eligible and then takes the claim. If you are claiming a flat rate, choose the heading "Uniform, work clothing and tools" and send nothing else. If you are claiming the actual amount, that goes under "Other expenses" and needs copies of your receipts.

If you complete a Self Assessment tax return, the online service is closed to you: the figure goes on the return instead, in box 18 of the SA102 page.

For a claim covering the current year, HMRC usually adjusts your tax code so that less tax comes out of your pay. For earlier years it either adjusts the code or refunds what you overpaid.

Finally, if you claimed an estimated figure and the year ended with a different one, you must tell HMRC: submit a new claim online, complete a postal form, or — if the amount has gone down — simply phone the helpline.