Farm, Forestry and Food Production Workers: The £100 and £60 Flat Rates
Agricultural work is one of the few occupations where HMRC's flat rate expenses table does not bother subdividing. There are no separate figures for stockmen and tractor drivers, no apprentice rate and no distinction by employer. It is a single line: agriculture, all workers, £100 a year. Forestry gets the same £100. The food industry, meaning food processing and production rather than catering, gets £60 for all workers. If you are employed under PAYE in any of those and you buy and wash your own overalls and waterproofs, that allowance belongs to you and it almost certainly is not in your tax code.
The rates, from HMRC's flat rate expenses table: agriculture, all workers, £100. Forestry, all workers, £100. Food, all workers, £60. Quarrying, all workers, £100. Source: GOV.UK flat rate expenses and HMRC's Employment Income Manual at EIM32712.
What the Allowance Is Worth
| Rate | Basic 20% | Scottish intermediate 21% | Higher 40% | Five years at basic rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £100 (agriculture, forestry, quarrying) | £20 a year | £21 a year | £40 a year | £100 |
| £60 (food production) | £12 a year | £12.60 a year | £24 a year | £60 |
The flat rate is a deduction from taxable income rather than a payment, so the cash you see is the allowance multiplied by your tax rate. Because you can claim the current year plus the four before it, a first claim is worth five times the annual figure, with the closed years arriving as a repayment and the current year handled by a change to your tax code.
Who "All Workers" Covers
The absence of sub-categories is genuinely useful here, because agricultural jobs rarely have tidy titles. The entry covers employed farm workers generally: stockmen and stockwomen, dairy staff, tractor and machinery operators, arable workers, poultry and pig unit staff, general farm labourers, and people employed by agricultural contractors rather than directly by a farm.
Forestry at £100 covers employed woodland and timber workers. The food entry at £60 covers employees in food manufacturing and processing, which is a different thing from hospitality: a worker on a production line at a bakery or a meat processing plant sits under the food heading, whereas someone serving in a cafe has no listed rate and falls back on the standard £60 anyway.
The Condition That Rules Most Farmers Out
This relief is for employees taxed through PAYE. A self-employed farmer, a partner in a farming partnership, or a self-employed agricultural contractor cannot use it, because flat rate expenses are an employment income deduction.
That is not a loss. Self-employment gives you something better: you deduct the actual cost of protective clothing, laundry, tools and equipment as a business expense on your Self Assessment return, with no £100 ceiling. Keep the receipts and claim what you spent.
Seasonal and casual workers taxed under PAYE, including those on the Seasonal Worker visa route, can claim in the usual way, provided they paid income tax that year. If your earnings for the year came in under the £12,570 personal allowance, the deduction produces nothing, because there is no tax to reduce.
What the Flat Rate Actually Covers
Cleaning, repairing and replacing protective clothing and specialist kit. GOV.UK names overalls and safety boots as examples of specialist clothing that qualifies. In practice, for farm and forestry work that means overalls, waterproofs, wet weather gear, safety boots, and the sort of clothing that is genuinely unwearable outside work after a fortnight in a milking parlour.
What it does not cover is the initial cost of buying clothing for work. GOV.UK is explicit on that. It also does not cover ordinary clothing you happen to wear on the farm, however filthy it gets. Jeans are jeans.
If your employer provides it, you cannot claim. Where the farm or the processing plant supplies overalls, launders them on site, or pays you a cleaning allowance, you are not bearing the cost. Plenty of larger food production employers do exactly this for hygiene reasons, so check before you claim.
When the Actual Cost Beats the Flat Rate
The flat rate exists so you do not have to keep records. You are not obliged to use it. If your real spending on protective clothing, laundry and small tools is higher than £100 a year, you can claim the actual amount instead.
For a lot of agricultural workers it genuinely is higher. Waterproofs and safety boots wear out fast, hot washes of heavily soiled overalls are not cheap to run, and replacements are frequent. The trade-off is evidence: an actual cost claim needs receipts, and since 14 October 2024 HMRC requires supporting evidence for most PAYE employment expense claims. Flat rate claims are exempt from that requirement, actual cost claims are not.
A sensible approach is to take the flat rate now, start keeping receipts, and switch to actual costs next year if the total clearly beats £100.
Tools and Equipment
If you buy your own hand tools for the job and your employer does not reimburse you, the cost of repairing or replacing them is also relievable. Small tools are claimed as an expense; more expensive equipment is normally dealt with through capital allowances. Either way it is a separate claim from the uniform flat rate, and the two can be made together.
Making the Claim
- Have your National Insurance number ready, plus your employer's name and PAYE reference from your payslip or P60. For backdated years you need those details for each employer.
- Sign in to your Personal Tax Account on GOV.UK and open the service for claiming tax relief on employment expenses.
- Choose uniforms, work clothing and tools, and tick every tax year you are claiming for.
- Select agriculture, forestry or food from the occupation list as appropriate.
- Submit. Flat rate claims need no receipts.
Form P87 does the same thing by post if you would rather, and it is also free. If you already file a Self Assessment return, put the claim on the return instead. Self Assessment is required rather than optional if your expenses claim for the year comes to more than £2,500.
The Open Years
| Tax year | Deadline to claim |
|---|---|
| 2026/27 (current) | 5 April 2031 |
| 2025/26 | 5 April 2030 |
| 2024/25 | 5 April 2029 |
| 2023/24 | 5 April 2028 |
| 2022/23 | 5 April 2027 |
Agricultural work being what it is, plenty of people will have moved between farms, contractors and processing plants across those five years. That is not a problem. You claim for each year you were employed in a qualifying role, and you do not need to still be in the job.
Scottish Taxpayers
Relief is given at the rates that apply to you, so a Scottish taxpayer on the intermediate rate gets 21% of £100 rather than 20%, and one earning above £43,662 gets 42%. An S at the front of your tax code confirms HMRC has you down as resident in Scotland. Given how much of the UK's forestry and hill farming sits north of the border, it is worth checking that prefix is right.