If you have to wear a recognisable uniform or protective clothing for work and you clean, repair or replace it at your own expense, you can claim tax relief on a flat rate for doing so. It is relief rather than a refund of the cost, so what you get back is the flat rate multiplied by your rate of tax. The claim is free to make and usually stays in your tax code for later years.
What counts as a uniform
The clothing has to be recognisable as a uniform or as protective clothing needed for the job. A branded tunic, a nurse's uniform, overalls, high-visibility clothing and safety boots all qualify.
Ordinary clothing does not, however strict the dress code. A suit for an office, a plain black shirt for a bar, or smart shoes for a shop are all clothing you could wear elsewhere, and HMRC treats them as ordinary clothing whatever your employer requires.
The test is what the clothing is, rather than what you paid for it or how you feel about wearing it outside work.
The conditions that have to hold
You must have to wear it to do your job, and you must have to maintain it yourself. A claim fails where your employer launders the clothing, provides free laundering facilities, or reimburses you for the cost.
You cannot claim for buying the clothing in the first place. The relief is for cleaning, repairing and replacing, not for the initial purchase, and that distinction catches out people who bought their own safety boots.
You have to have paid income tax in the year you are claiming for, because relief works by reducing taxed income.
What it is actually worth
HMRC allows a flat rate rather than asking for receipts, and the amount depends on what you do. HMRC's table of agreed amounts sets a yearly figure industry by industry and occupation by occupation, and where no agreed rate covers your job, HMRC's manual gives a standard yearly amount for laundering a uniform or protective clothing that it accepts as a reasonable estimate. Both are listed in the sources below.
You get back the flat rate multiplied by your tax rate, not the flat rate itself. At the basic rate that is 20% of the amount; at the higher rate, 40%. So the claim is worth tens of pounds a year for most people rather than hundreds, and the trade-specific rates are where the larger claims are.
Someone earning below the Personal Allowance of £12,570 gets nothing, because there is no tax to relieve.
Claiming actual costs instead
You can claim what you actually spent rather than the flat rate, but the evidence requirement is real: receipts, and a basis for apportioning household costs such as washing that also cleans your own clothes.
For most people the flat rate is both larger and simpler than an evidenced claim, which is why HMRC offers it. The exception is specialist protective clothing that is genuinely expensive to replace.
How to claim
GOV.UK runs its own service for the claim, and it is free. It asks for your employer's details and your National Insurance number.
Where you complete a Self Assessment return, the claim goes in the employment expenses section of the return instead; the same year is not claimed by both routes.
Claims can be backdated to earlier tax years within HMRC's time limit for each year. A successful claim for a closed year is paid as a repayment rather than through your code.
How it reaches your pay
For the current year, HMRC adds the allowance to your tax code, so the number in it goes up and slightly less tax comes off each payslip. The difference is a few pounds a month rather than a lump sum.
The claim usually carries forward automatically into later years once it is in your code, which is convenient while nothing changes and a problem when it does.
Tell HMRC if you change job, or if your new employer launders the clothing or provides it free. An allowance left running after you stop qualifying underpays tax that HMRC will collect later through the same code.
Do I need receipts?
Not for the flat rate. That is what the flat rate is for: HMRC accepts a standard amount for the trade rather than asking anyone to keep laundry receipts.
You do need them for an actual-cost claim, and HMRC can ask for them for any year it opens. Keeping your payslips and P60s matters more, because those are what establish that you paid tax in the year you are claiming for.
Why the refund companies advertise this one
Uniform claims are advertised heavily by companies that charge a share of whatever comes back. The claim itself is free and takes minutes through GOV.UK, so the fee is the whole of their business.
Some of those companies ask you to sign a deed of assignment, which directs not only this repayment but future ones to them. HMRC has published warnings about exactly that.
We do not recommend for or against using an agent. What is worth knowing before signing anything is that the claim is free, that it is yours to make, and that an assignment can reach further than the claim in front of you.