EIM31802 | Travel expenses: travel for necessary attendance: signposting

Overview

Is the employee travelling to a temporary workplace?

Is the employee travelling to a permanent workplace?

Overview

Section 338 ITEPA 2003 permits relief for the cost of travel for necessary attendance at any place in the performance of the duties of the employment.

The following guidance and examples cover some general principles:

In order to determine whether relief is available under s.338 ITEPA 2003 for the cost of travel, it is important to determine whether the employee is travelling to a temporary or a permanent workplace.

Is the employee travelling to a temporary workplace?

A workplace may be a temporary workplace if an employee goes there only to perform a task of limited duration or for a temporary purpose.

Further guidance can be found at EIM32075.

Attendance for a temporary purpose

An employee may attend a workplace regularly and perform duties there that are not of limited duration without that workplace becoming a permanent workplace, provided that the purpose of each visit is temporary. Where a visit is self-contained (that is, arranged for a particular reason rather than as part of a series of visits to the same workplace for the continuation of a particular task) it is likely to be for a temporary purpose.

Further guidance can be found at EIM32150 and examples can be found at EIM32151, EIM32152, EIM32153 and EIM32154.

Additional Rules: Temporary Workplace

You must also consider the following additional rules:

• the 24 month rule

• the fixed term appointment rule

• the depots and bases rule

• the area rule

24 Month Rule

There is a further rule that prevents a workplace from being a temporary workplace where an employee attends it in the course of a period of continuous work that lasts, or is likely to last, more than 24 months. Where this further rule applies the workplace will be a permanent workplace.

Further guidance can be found at EIM32080, EIM32100, and EIM32105. Examples can be found at:

Fixed Term Appointments Rule

A period of attendance at a workplace for a limited duration does not make that place a temporary workplace if the employee attends in the course of a period of continuous work that can be expected to last for all, or almost all, of the period for which he or she is likely to hold, or continue to hold, that employment. In these cases the 24 month rule is overridden and the workplace is a permanent workplace.

Further guidance and examples can be found:

Depots and Bases Rule

Where an employee regularly attends a workplace because it is either the base from which he or she works, or the place at which he or she is routinely allocated tasks, that workplace is deemed to be a permanent workplace and not a temporary workplace.

Further guidance can be found at EIM32160 with examples at EIM32161, EIM32162, EIM32163 and EIM32164.

The Area Rule

Some employees do not have a single site as a permanent workplace but instead have an employment for which their duties are defined by a particular geographical area.

Further guidance and examples can be found at:

Is the employee travelling to a permanent workplace?

A place at which an employee works is a permanent workplace if he or she attends it regularly for the performance of the duties of the employment.

For guidance on the definition of a permanent workplace, see EIM32065.

For guidance on the meaning of regular attendance, see EIM32070.

For guidance on when a workplace ceases to be a permanent workplace, see EIM32220. There is an example at EIM32221.

Where an employee passes their permanent workplace on the way to somewhere else, see EIM32230. There is an example at EIM32231.

Travel for necessary attendance includes journeys that employees make to or from a place they must attend in the performance of their duties, but not journeys that are ordinary commuting or private travel (see EIM32050)

For most employees, ordinary commuting is the journey they make most days between their home and their permanent workplace (see EIM32055). An employee cannot turn what is really an ordinary commuting journey into a business journey simply by arranging a business appointment along the way (see EIM32060).

Is the journey ordinary commuting, or a journey treated as ordinary commuting?

For most employees, ordinary commuting is the journey they make most days between their home and their permanent workplace. However, for some employees the position is more complicated.

For further guidance, see EIM32055 and EIM32060. There is an example at EIM32056.

Some journeys are treated as ordinary commuting. For further guidance on when this may occur, see EIM32300 alongside the examples at:

Is the employees home a workplace?

Travel between an employee’s home and a permanent workplace is “ordinary commuting” and the expenses of such journeys do not qualify for a deduction under the ‘necessary attendance’ test.

For further guidance, see EIM32170. There are examples at EIM32171, EIM32172, EIM32173 and EIM32174.

Is the journey private travel, or a journey treated as private travel?

Private travel is defined as travel between the employee’s home and a place that is not a workplace, or two places neither of which is a workplace.

No deduction is available for journeys that are, or are treated as, private travel.

For further guidance, see EIM32180 and the examples at EIM32181 and EIM32182.

Some journeys are treated as private travel. For further guidance on when this may occur, see EIM32320 alongside the examples at:

Does the employee have more than one permanent workplace at the same time?

Occasionally, someone who has two or more employments, or is in an employment that requires regular attendance at more than one workplace, may have more than one permanent workplace at the same time. However, each case must be decided on its own facts and most employees will only have one permanent workplace at any one time.

For further guidance, see EIM32140 and examples at EIM32141, EIM32142 and EIM32143.

Emergency Call Out and Standby

Employees sometimes have to travel to a permanent workplace unexpectedly or in an emergency. If a deduction would not normally be due for the cost of that journey, a deduction will not be due under section 338 ITEPA 2003 just because the journey was made in response to an emergency (see EIM32240 and the example in EIM32241)

No deduction is due where an employee on stand-by has to travel to a permanent workplace, whether or not the travel is during ordinary working hours (see EIM32250 and the example in EIM32251)

Safeguards Against Abuse

Sections 338 and 339 ITEPA 2003 include additional legislation to provide safeguards that prevent a deduction being obtained in circumstances where it is not properly due (see EIM32260).