Business Miles
Discussion
Can someone clear something up for us in the office.
Say your normal journey to work is 20 miles, however one day you get sent to another office which is 25 miles away.
Do you:
a) Claim the full 25 miles as an expense as its not your normal place of work
b) Claim the 5 miles which is over and above your normal journey?
Personally i'd claim the full 25 miles but thats me!
Does it make a difference if its a Client office rather than your own companies over office.
What happens if your normal journey to work is 20 miles but you get sent to another office only 15 miles away - Can you claim for the 15 miles as its not your usual place of work? Or can you not make a claim on expenses as its under your "normal" commute to work?
What happens if you had to go into London for a meeting and decided to get the train, could you claim the 3 miles you drove to the station to park the car? (Even though its below your normal journey)
Thanks,
Phill
Say your normal journey to work is 20 miles, however one day you get sent to another office which is 25 miles away.
Do you:
a) Claim the full 25 miles as an expense as its not your normal place of work
b) Claim the 5 miles which is over and above your normal journey?
Personally i'd claim the full 25 miles but thats me!
Does it make a difference if its a Client office rather than your own companies over office.
What happens if your normal journey to work is 20 miles but you get sent to another office only 15 miles away - Can you claim for the 15 miles as its not your usual place of work? Or can you not make a claim on expenses as its under your "normal" commute to work?
What happens if you had to go into London for a meeting and decided to get the train, could you claim the 3 miles you drove to the station to park the car? (Even though its below your normal journey)
Thanks,
Phill
pmanson said:
Do you:
a) Claim the full 25 miles as an expense as its not your normal place of work
b) Claim the 5 miles which is over and above your normal journey?
a) Claim the full 25 miles as an expense as its not your normal place of work
b) Claim the 5 miles which is over and above your normal journey?
Claim the full 25 miles.
pmanson said:
What happens if your normal journey to work is 20 miles but you get sent to another office only 15 miles away - Can you claim for the 15 miles as its not your usual place of work? Or can you not make a claim on expenses as its under your "normal" commute to work?
As far as I remember, not only can you claim the 15 miles to the other office, but also the rest of the journey back to your normal office. IIRC if your first stop on a journey is somewhere other than your place of work then the entire journey is classed as "business" regardless of whether or not you would have made some or all of it anyway.
pmanson said:
What happens if you had to go into London for a meeting and decided to get the train, could you claim the 3 miles you drove to the station to park the car? (Even though its below your normal journey)
Yes. But I don't as it's only 1 mile for me and I can't be arsed with the paperwork.
miniman said:
As far as I remember, not only can you claim the 15 miles to the other office, but also the rest of the journey back to your normal office. IIRC if your first stop on a journey is somewhere other than your place of work then the entire journey is classed as "business" regardless of whether or not you would have made some or all of it anyway.
I thought if you ended up in the office your expenses would read
"Home to Client, then to office (less miles home to office)"
This was introduced in our office after a visit by the taxman, but had always applied at my previous employers.
What is oddd though is say your home to office journey is 50 mile round trip, and you go somehwere else that is only 40 miles round trip and don;t go to the office, you can then claim full 40 miles (I think and do!)
Eric Mc said:
The tax man employs the concept of "the normal commute". Tax claims can only be made for travel costs incurred beyond that of "the normal commute".
What you can claim from your employer is a totally separate matter and should be set out ion your employment contract.
What you can claim from your employer is a totally separate matter and should be set out ion your employment contract.
When you say incurred above that of "the normal commute" does that mean if my normal commute is 50 miles a day (round trip) but I do a "business journey" of 40 miles (round trip) I can't claim anything as it is below my normal commute?
I can claim 40p per mile for my business journeys which I do, i'm just concerned about exactly what I should be claiming for.
Eric Mc said:
The tax man employs the concept of "the normal commute". Tax claims can only be made for travel costs incurred beyond that of "the normal commute".
What you can claim from your employer is a totally separate matter and should be set out ion your employment contract.
What you can claim from your employer is a totally separate matter and should be set out ion your employment contract.
When you say incurred above that of "the normal commute" does that mean if my normal commute is 50 miles a day (round trip) but I do a "business journey" of 40 miles (round trip) I can't claim anything as it is below my normal commute?
I can claim 40p per mile for my business journeys which I do, i'm just concerned about exactly what I should be claiming for.
pmanson said:
Eric Mc said:
The tax man employs the concept of "the normal commute". Tax claims can only be made for travel costs incurred beyond that of "the normal commute".
What you can claim from your employer is a totally separate matter and should be set out ion your employment contract.
What you can claim from your employer is a totally separate matter and should be set out ion your employment contract.
When you say incurred above that of "the normal commute" does that mean if my normal commute is 50 miles a day (round trip) but I do a "business journey" of 40 miles (round trip) I can't claim anything as it is below my normal commute?
I can claim 40p per mile for my business journeys which I do, i'm just concerned about exactly what I should be claiming for.
That would depend on if you were officially working from home that day, if you were your "normal commute" was bedroom to study in slippers ie zero miles, anything over that was business miles. But don't take my word for it as I always push what I can claim back from this bar stewerd of a government.
The normal commute is the distance from your home to your normal place of work. Most employees DO NOT work from home so the normal commute would be from their homes to their office/factory/shop etc.
If you undertake a journey on behalf of your employer from your normal place of work to a customer/supplier or whatever, that would be considered to be a "business journey" and would be eligible for a valid claim for tax relief at the usual tax relief levels (40p per mile for the 1st 10,000 busines miles, 25p per mile thereafter).
If you go direct from your home to one of your employer's customers/suppliers and the distance of the journey is in excess of your normal commute, the excess distance can be claimed for.
If it is less, them it isn't claimable.
If you are unsure of what your "normal commute" actually is (in certain circumstances, it may not be absolutely clear), then you or your employer can always check with your Tax Office for a clarification. If you do seek advice from a Tax Office, get it in writing as they will not stand by advice given verbally.
If you undertake a journey on behalf of your employer from your normal place of work to a customer/supplier or whatever, that would be considered to be a "business journey" and would be eligible for a valid claim for tax relief at the usual tax relief levels (40p per mile for the 1st 10,000 busines miles, 25p per mile thereafter).
If you go direct from your home to one of your employer's customers/suppliers and the distance of the journey is in excess of your normal commute, the excess distance can be claimed for.
If it is less, them it isn't claimable.
If you are unsure of what your "normal commute" actually is (in certain circumstances, it may not be absolutely clear), then you or your employer can always check with your Tax Office for a clarification. If you do seek advice from a Tax Office, get it in writing as they will not stand by advice given verbally.
Eric Mc said:
If you go direct from your home to one of your employer's customers/suppliers and the distance of the journey is in excess of your normal commute, the excess distance can be claimed for.
If it is less, them it isn't claimable.
If you are unsure of what your "normal commute" actually is (in certain circumstances, it may not be absolutely clear), then you or your employer can always check with your Tax Office for a clarification. If you do seek advice from a Tax Office, get it in writing as they will not stand by advice given verbally.
If it is less, them it isn't claimable.
If you are unsure of what your "normal commute" actually is (in certain circumstances, it may not be absolutely clear), then you or your employer can always check with your Tax Office for a clarification. If you do seek advice from a Tax Office, get it in writing as they will not stand by advice given verbally.
Depending on many things, all business mileage is claimable unless against company policy (BUT see next paragraph) - That's according to the tax office who confirmed it both to me and my employer at the time when I was in the same situation (ie travelling from home to clients that were nearer than the office). They also reimbursed all tax for a two year period as I had only been claiming excess mileages up to that point.
However, I agree with Eric about getting things in writing. Also, if you read all the IR guides, it all gets nice and complicated depending on what your job is; what the destination is (ie client vs company office/suppliers etc); how long you're doing it for etc...
So - the "(in certain circumstances, it may not be absolutely clear)" bit of Eric's post is most definately true
The whole Business Mileage area can get tremendously complicated, expecially when people aren't exactly clear as to what they are querying e.g. -
can I claim the mileage from my employer?
if I do, to what extent will the Inland Revenue tax me on it?
can I make a direct claim to the tax man for such mileage?
can I claim the mileage from my employer?
if I do, to what extent will the Inland Revenue tax me on it?
can I make a direct claim to the tax man for such mileage?
In reality, the Revenue can ignore completely what it says in an employment contract, if the actual working practices are significantly different to what the contract actually says. Just because it SAYS your normal place of work is home does not necessarilly mean it really is. Reality is always viewed as superior to words.
mel said:
The moral is whenever possible have it written into your contract that your normal place of work is to based from home.
You can have two places of work for tax purposes! If you attend somewhere 40% of the time it is a place of work. Therefore, even if you "work from home" but go to the office twice a week, the trip to the office is private mileage in the eyes of the revenue.
You should claim the 25 miles as long as it isn't "substantially similar" to your work journey.
(I.E. it's only really 5 miles away from the office)
For the point on going to a temporary place of work, then to the office then you would normally get away with either the trip to the temporary place of work, or the difference between that mileage and your normal journey and not the full round trip.
This should help you...
www.workbox.demon.co.uk/B13.htm
(I.E. it's only really 5 miles away from the office)
For the point on going to a temporary place of work, then to the office then you would normally get away with either the trip to the temporary place of work, or the difference between that mileage and your normal journey and not the full round trip.
This should help you...
www.workbox.demon.co.uk/B13.htm
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