Change in Place of Work and claiming expenses to travel

[Simon-R]

Hi,

The company that I work for is in the process of changing the location of its head office. My normal place of work in my contract is the soon to be old head office. I am currently in consultation for my job and I am told that my job is safe but it will be located at the new head office which is 92 miles away from home.

I have not been into our current head office this year and I go to the new head office once or twice a week for which I can claim mileage for the difference in distance from the old head office.

I was told yesterday that if the new head office becomes my contracted place of work but I only go there 2 days a week I can still claim mileage for going but if I go more than 3 days a week it becomes my normal place of work and therefore I cannot claim expenses. Is this correct? If so what happens if I normally go twice a week but I am called in for a 3rd day on an ad-hoc basis for meetings can I claim the 3rd day travel or not?

Many thanks for reading.

[quinny100]

What you've been told is not necessarily correct.

Your employer can pay you mileage for whatever they like, the question is whether it's taxable or not.

Start by reading this: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/490-emp...

Essentially, commuting is not business mileage so if paid would be liable for tax if reimbursed. Contractual locations are not necessarily relevant - you can have multiple permanent places of work and travel to those locations or and in some cases between them would be considered commuting.

[Countdown]

Simon-R said:

Hi,

The company that I work for is in the process of changing the location of its head office. My normal place of work in my contract is the soon to be old head office. I am currently in consultation for my job and I am told that my job is safe but it will be located at the new head office which is 92 miles away from home.

I have not been into our current head office this year and I go to the new head office once or twice a week for which I can claim mileage for the difference in distance from the old head office.

I was told yesterday that if the new head office becomes my contracted place of work but I only go there 2 days a week I can still claim mileage for going but if I go more than 3 days a week it becomes my normal place of work and therefore I cannot claim expenses. Is this correct? If so what happens if I normally go twice a week but I am called in for a 3rd day on an ad-hoc basis for meetings can I claim the 3rd day travel or not?

Many thanks for reading.

I'm not sure where the 3 days per week comes into it. My understanding is that you have a nominated place of work. Travel to/from that place of work is considered your normal commute, therefore any mileage payments would be taxable.

[21TonyK]

I'm likely to be in a similar situation myself, working on two new sites. I will be using it as a way of negotiating a salary increase to cover extra travel time and mileage. That way I (in theory) can negate the tax I would pay on mileage and its pensionable.

[PorkInsider]

quinny100 said:

What you've been told is not necessarily correct.

Your employer can pay you mileage for whatever they like, the question is whether it's taxable or not.

Start by reading this: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/490-emp...

Essentially, commuting is not business mileage so if paid would be liable for tax if reimbursed. Contractual locations are not necessarily relevant - you can have multiple permanent places of work and travel to those locations or and in some cases between them would be considered commuting.

Section 3.11 (p12) of that document seems to imply that even 1 or 2 days per week could make the office a permanent place of work.

[Simon-R]

Thanks for all of the responses. Having read the document it would seem that if I am based at a local office for example 3 days a week then I can claim tax relief on travelling expenses for the 2 days that i travel to the head office.

All very helpful.

[rattyuk2000]

In a prior job I was home working and my contract specified that.

But because I was on average two days a fortnight (~20%) in the same office HQ for meetings, payroll tagged my 45ppm mileage claim as liable for BIK because "permanent place of work" and declared it on my P11D each year.