EIM32272 | Travel expenses: travel for necessary attendance: safeguards against abuse: the necessary attendance rule: example

An employee works for a firm of estate agents that has branches across the West Midlands. She lives in Wolverhampton and works at the branch in Coventry. She has a number of business phone calls to make that can be made at any time during the day. Her employer tells her to stop off at the Birmingham branch on the way to her permanent workplace in Coventry in order to make some of the phone calls.

No deduction is due for the cost of her travel from Wolverhampton to Birmingham. Her ordinary commuting journey does not become a business journey because she stops off at the Birmingham branch. The Birmingham branch is not a workplace on this occasion because her visit is not an objective requirement of the duties of her employment, see EIM32270. Similarly, she is not entitled to relief for the cost of her journey from Birmingham to Coventry. Birmingham is not a workplace on this occasion and so the travel to her permanent workplace in Coventry is ordinary commuting, see EIM32055.