EIM32356 | Travel expenses: travel in the performance of the duties: home to work travel

From HM Revenue & Customs · Employment Income Manual

Section 337 ITEPA 2003

The Courts have established as a clear general principle that the cost of travelling from an employee’s home to his or her normal place of work is not travel in the performance of the duties, see EIM31650. The expense merely puts the employee into a position to perform his or her duties.

The cases that have established this principle are:

Cook v Knott	2TC246
Revell v Directors of Elworthy Bros & Co Ltd	3TC12
Andrews v Astley	8TC589
Ricketts v Colquhoun	10TC118, see EIM31641
Nolder v Walters	15TC380
Burton v Rednall	35TC435
Parikh v Sleeman	63TC75, see EIM32360
Miners v Atkinson	68TC629, see EIM32380
Kirkwood v Evans	74TC481, see EIM32374

The only exceptions to this rule are:

travel from home to a temporary workplace, see EIM32000
where the employee has a travelling appointment, see EIM32366
where the employee’s home is a place of work and the place where the employee lives is dictated by the requirements of the job, see EIM32370
where the duties of the employment are carried out wholly or partly outside the UK, see EIM34020
where a non-domiciled employee is working in the UK, see EIM35030
emergency call-outs see EIM32386.