EIM32108 | Travel expenses: travel for necessary attendance: the 24 month rule: breaks in attendance: example

An employee is employed as a human resources consultant. She works full-time at a client’s site for 17 months developing a new staff appraisal system and then deals with unexpected priority work elsewhere for 3 months. She then returns to the client’s site for a further 6 months to co- ordinate the roll-out of the new system, as had been planned from the outset of the project. A deduction is due for the full cost of travel from her home to the client’s site for the first 17 months but no deduction is due for travel costs for the further 6 months.

The client’s site is capable of being a temporary workplace because her attendance is for a limited duration, see EIM32075. For the first 17 months the client’s site is not prevented from being a temporary workplace by the further rule explained in EIM32080. Her attendance is in a period of continuous work (she works there for 40% or more of her working time) but it is not expected at the outset that the period will exceed 24 months. So for the first 17 months the client’s site is a temporary workplace.

For the further 6 month period the expectation has changed. She now expects to spend 40% or more of her working time at the client’s site for a period that exceeds 24 months (17 +3 + 6 = 26). Therefore, for the further 6 months the client’s site is treated as a permanent workplace.