EIM35100 | Travelling expenses: Non-resident and qualifying new resident employees working in the United Kingdom: meaning of travelling expenses

Sections 373 to 375 ITEPA 2003

The legislation relating to the rules described at EIM35030 and EIM35050 uses the terms "expenses incurred on a journey" and "travel facilities provided for any journey".

They are not defined but they should all be read as covering both fares and subsistence expenditure while travelling.

Example

If an employee travels from Milan to the United Kingdom to work at the employer's office in London, Section 373 allows the travel costs of a journey.

“from the country outside the United Kingdom in which the employee normally lives at the time the journey is made to a place in the United Kingdom in order to perform duties of the employment”.

If the individual travels by train, eats meals on the train and stays overnight in a hotel to break the journey, all of the costs would be allowable subject to all of the relevant conditions being satisfied.

The subsistence is part of the journey.

However, if the employer pays for the employee's hotel accommodation in London no deduction is possible under Section 373 because this is no longer part of the travel to the UK.