EIM32137 | Travel expenses: travel for necessary attendance: fixed term appointments and agency workers: case law

Sections 338 and 339 ITEPA 2003

In Kirkwood v Evans (74TC481) a workplace that was attended for one day per week for the duration of an employment was held to be a permanent workplace. In the course of the judgment the following explanation of the fixed term appointment rule was given.

“To avoid the costs of regular commuting being reclaimed simply because the employment itself is of limited duration special provisions have been included….. The effect of these provisions is to exclude travel to a workplace during the course of a limited or fixed term of employment if the place is one at which the duties of the employee are performed to a significant extent….. Commuting to and from work at a temporary job is therefore ordinary commuting because the locus in quo is a permanent workplace …. and not a temporary one. Having regard to the provisions …. the definition of a temporary workplace is intended to encompass places of work which require the employee’s attendance for a limited or temporary purpose within a course of employment (whether of limited duration or otherwise).”