Business mileage from home to various sites

Hello, I work for a local authority as a Surveyor and attend several temporary construction sites within a geographical area in the borough on a daily bases. My permanent place of work is the councils offices but I only commute there once a week the rest of the week I work from home. I claim business mileage from the office to the building sites on the day I set off from the office. My question is when I am working from home , can I claim business mileage for the whole journey from my home address to the various temporary building sites. The sites I visit are closer to my home than my permanent place of work therefore my business mileage is less on the days I work from home. Thanks . Regards 

Hi,
 

Given that you split your working time between your home and your office, you are regarded by HMRC as having two 'permanent workplaces'.  You can therefore claim the business mileage incurred when travelling from your home to work at one of your  'temporary worklaces' - ie the construction sites within the designated geographical area.    See link: Ordinary commuting and private travel (490: Chapter 3)     . Thank you .

I work as self-employed from home and occasionally two commercial sites to perform part of my duties. Am I able to claim mileage on my tax return?

Hi Federica Bertolini,

You can find guidance on claiming travel expenses at:

Expenses if you're self-employed

It will help you decide what is allowable and not allowable.

Further guidance can be found at:

BIM37675 - Wholly and exclusively: duality of, or non-trade, purpose: non-travel topics: accommodation and subsistence: sub-contractors

Thank you. 


 

Similar situation i work for a local authority and have been based at home since March 2020 but the authority says I cannot claim mileage from home as my work place base is still the office. Do Local Authorities not need to follow HMRC's policies? thanks

Hi jmor,
As your employer has stated that the office is still your workbase, then any allowable expenes would only be applicable from work to sites.
If these are something that you would pass on a normal commute to your workbase then there would be no relief available.
You may want to discuss it further with your employer.
Please note though, you cannot claim from home to a work site no matter what as you do have a regular base to work from and it is your choice not to
Thank you. 


 

Hi, can someone please confirm if I can claim mileage for my commute to and from work. I work in management on a construction site and the site I work on at the moment will only last 1.5 years from start to finish. My contract with my employer has the address of my previous site on it. I have been told by HR that because I have a site address on my contract then this means HMRC deem "site" as my permanent place of work and therefore I can't claim mileage for commuting to any site in the country. This doesn't sound accurate to me. Please confirm if I can claim expenses or not.

Hi SBEGUM,

Travel to and from a place of work is generally considered private travel and no tax relief is permitted.
Tax relief can be claimed on travel from a place of work to other sites.  As this particular site will be considered your place of work, no relief would be due.  
The guidance on travel expenses can be found at EIM32000  Employment Income Manual.

Thank you

 

Hi Admin, Thank you for your reply on my above post. When does a place of work become temporary? I may be misunderstanding, but I thought attending a workplace for a limited amount of time (less than 24months) makes it a temporary workplace? As my work on this site is only going to last for a maximum of a year and a half, does that not count as a temporary place of work?

Hi,

The definition of a temporary place of work is more than being a period of less than 24 months. The legislation below can be used to determine the outcome, based on the facts of the case.

Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003

Thank you.

Hi there, I have a quick one, most days I travel to my place of work in Manchester from my house and do not claim. Occassionally, say a couple of times a month I travel directly to property we manage in the North of England or Scotland and sometimes to Liverpool. On these days, as I am spending a full day there at least I would claim from home as I go directly to the site and they are not my permenant place of work. They are however buildings or sites owned/managed by the company I work for, so can I claim releif on those trips? Thanks

Hi Nicholas Lake

EIM32055 advises that travel from home to a permanent place of work or the reverse, is classed as 'ordinary commuting' and does not qualify for tax relief. You can find details here
EIM32055 - Travel expenses: travel for necessary attendance: definitions: ordinary commuting
EIM32065 guidance advises "a workplace is not a permanent workplace if it is a temporary workplace.
A temporary workplace is somewhere the employee goes only to perform a task of limited duration or for a temporary purpose. The cost of travel to a temporary workplace is deductible. Please see
EIM32065 - Travel expenses: travel for necessary attendance: definitions: permanent workplace

Thank you

Sorry, I am confused by the issue of temporary workplaces and defining workplaces based on geographic location as one seems to contradict the other. If we have employees that have a single contractual work base, but they leave home and go out to see customers of the business in a defined geographic location and perform activities of the business whilst in the customer's location, and then return home at the end of the day and never go to their contractual work base during a typical working day, are all these customer locations they are performing work activities considered temporary places of work and therefore deductible? I have read the example given for duties defined by reference to a particular area (EIM32190) and it looks like because the employees still have a contractual work base, then it's not deductible. Before the pandemic, we used to have the staff come into the work base and then travel out to customers and return to their work base at the end of the day. Even though they claimed mileage from home, we never paid them for the mileage as we considered it as commuting and understood that if we did pay it, then it would be taxable as income. Now, staff do not travel to their work base on a routine basis, but they still retain their office location as their place of work for their contract of employment.

Hi,

Please refer to additional guidance at:

EIM32075 - Travel expenses: travel for necessary attendance: definitions: temporary workplace

Thank you.

Again, similar query re. LA working. I work 99% of my time at home as an Agile Worker. The other 1% of my time is spent on visits to various different places in the community as part of my role and very very occasionally in the office. In the LA agile working policy it says 'These roles predominantly do not have a fixed location. The predominant base will be home and visits to a council place of work is for collaborative working and occasional desk-based tasks'. They have now confused the issue by saying the contractural base is an office location for all employees. However the desk space in the office is now, since Covid, greatly reduced and it would be impossible for all staff or even half the staff to be in the office at the same time which now makes home working essential and permanent and therefore no longer really a choice for anything other than ad hoc desk hopping. I am only ever in the office on an ad hoc basis to pick something up when I am in and out again, or if my manager calls an ad hoc face to face team meeting. No work in the office is ever the same day or time, is never regular and is usually several weeks or even months apart. As home, according to LA policy, is my base and it is not expected that I should be in the office except for collaborative working and occasional desk based tasks, can I claim all my travelling expenses and working time from home? Example - I work from 7.30am every day from home If I go to see someone in the community (all different places, businesses, community groups), or go to other LA premises as a one off, during my working day, for work purposes, can I claim travelling expenses and working time there and back from home? e.g. I have started work at 7.30am, I then go, for work, to see a group in the community at 10.00am and travel back home at 11.00am when I continue to work at home. My employer says for the first and last journey in a day for work I cannot claim travel expenses over and above what my mileage to the office would have been and so that has to be deducted from mileage claims (Even though I very rarely go to the office). I also have to deduct the TIME for the first and last journeys for what my travel time to the office would be, So I also lose time every time I leave the house for work, as part of my working day that I then have to make up! I have read and read HMRC rules and cannot get clarity on this issue. Can you help me please? Thank you

Hi Jastsa Mac,

Please have a look at EIM32374, regarding travel to and from home where it is a place of work.  
EIM32374 - Travel expenses: travel in the performance of the duties: travel to and from home where it is a place of work

Thank you.

Looking for additional guidance in a similar vein. I'm a sole trader, working as a gardener, where my home is my permanent place of work. I travel from home to various jobs throughout the day. My main enquiry concerns the return travel to my home/permanent place of work? Is this business mileage given that this is my place of work? Thanks in advance.

Hi
Yes,this is business mileage.
Please see:
Expenses if you're self-employed
Simplified expenses if you're self-employed
Thank you. 

Hi. Can I use simplified mileage if I have no permanent workplace? I have 20 customers a week(some weekly, 2 weekly, 4 weekly and monthly) all in different areas of my local area. The info available is very generic and scarce. I am a cleaner BTW and transport all my equipment everyday. Thanks

Hi Will33feeley,
Yes you can use simplified mileage if I have no permanent workplace.
Thank you.