Important Information About Uniform Hygiene
The government has recognised hygiene is critical in reducing the transmission of infections.
Most germs can survive on fabrics for some time. Normal washing of clothes will reduce the risk of germs spreading. Germs can spread between items in the laundry process.
NHS advice states uniforms can be "high risk items" in the spread of infection such as coronavirus.
Sectors singled out as high risk are:
- Healthcare
- Food Preparation
- Agriculture
https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/infections/can-clothes-and-towels-spread-germs/
You should wash high risk items at 60C with a bleach-based product. At the current time you may also want to wash your uniform more often and separate it from other laundry items.
HMRC have given tax allowances for some time to help with the laundry and upkeep of work uniform.
Allowances vary from £60 to £1,022 per year depending on the job. Workers in healthcare sector have allowances of between £80 and £185 per year. We can help you claim these allowances.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/job-expenses-for-uniforms-work-clothing-and-tools
Most of these allowances have not increased since 2008. Washing at 60C uses more electricity and costs more than a 40C wash. Separating high risk items also requires extra washing cycles.
We ask the government to increase these allowances now to reflect the costs to key workers. Please sign the petition below so it can be debated in parliament.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/313347https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP
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Each tax year will be recalculated if you enter a claim. This often identifies other overpayments due to incorrect tax codes, multiple employments, ceasing of job, etc. In these cases we can identify a much larger tax rebate. We regularly identify rebates of over £1,000 for customers who were originally estimated a lower amount.
If you claim now you will receive tax relief for the current tax year and future years that allowances continue to apply, paid through your monthly pay, no charge will be made on future tax relief or refunds.
You don't need to make any upfront payment to us in order for us to check if you are due a rebate.
We will ensure that your current year reliefs are correct and that your future year allowances are adjusted in line with the current year to ensure you are no longer being overtaxed. There will be no charge calculated for amending your current tax code and you will receive any tax refunds due in the current year and in future years directly.
If you are due a refund in the 4 previous tax years we will receive that refund from HMRC on your behalf and deduct charges in accordance with those quoted on the website prior to making a payment to you.
Standard deduction is 30% + £30, plus VAT, where due on any refund payment HMRC send us before passing payment on to you. Charges are limited to the previous 4 tax years we check and we will not make any deduction on future tax refunds.
If no refund is due the service is FREE to use. If a refund is due standard pricing is 30% + £30, plus VAT, where due on any refund payment HMRC send us before passing payment on to you. The charge is levied on all refunds received from HMRC covered by the claim period (4 previous years) regardless of reason. When entering a claim you agree to legally and unconditionally assign the rights to any refund for the previous 4 years to OTR, when payment is made to us we will forward the residual balance to you net of our agreed fees. On receipt of the form HMRC will manually reconcile (calculate) your tax liability for each year of your claim. If unreconciled differences are present on your taxpayer record for any year these differences may positively or negatively effect your tax liability on top of the effect of any allowances or expenses claimed for. HMRC perform a more basic automatic reconciliation on taxpayer records from April to November in the tax year following the end of each tax year. By submitting your claim you forgo the rights to any benefits that may have been accrued as a result of HMRC performing an automatic reconciliation, from the date your form is received by HMRC.