Mileage allowance for using own car at work
Discussion
One of my colleagues has a problem.
He does about 90% of his work in his home town but is officially based at our head office 20 miles away. He is a building inspector and his usual day consists of driving around and visiting sites for about 6.5 hours and about 1 hours office work in whichever office is nearest(usually the one in his home town). He typically does about 40 miles per day in and around his patch.
We get paid 50p per mile for using our own cars for business so in his case that's about 10000 business miles per year which gives him £5000 to run his Lexus 220 which is not bad.
We've just got a new Finance Manager who is insisting that whether or not he travels to his official base every day, he should subtract the 40 'home to work' miles from any mileage he claims. On reading our terms and conditions, this is technically correct but it means that in spite of driving around 40 business miles per day , most days he cannot claim anything back.
As I see it , he has three options,
1. Argue against this interpretation of the situation.
2. Accept it and use his car for work at his own expense.
3. Travel to his official base every day then drive back to the town he works in ,drive around as usual then drive back to the base to finish before driving home. (This would mean he would be driving 40 miles a day at his own expense and 80 miles at works expense and spending an extra hour of his own time travelling as well as losing an hour a day of working time at works expense)
Any suggestions?
He does about 90% of his work in his home town but is officially based at our head office 20 miles away. He is a building inspector and his usual day consists of driving around and visiting sites for about 6.5 hours and about 1 hours office work in whichever office is nearest(usually the one in his home town). He typically does about 40 miles per day in and around his patch.
We get paid 50p per mile for using our own cars for business so in his case that's about 10000 business miles per year which gives him £5000 to run his Lexus 220 which is not bad.
We've just got a new Finance Manager who is insisting that whether or not he travels to his official base every day, he should subtract the 40 'home to work' miles from any mileage he claims. On reading our terms and conditions, this is technically correct but it means that in spite of driving around 40 business miles per day , most days he cannot claim anything back.
As I see it , he has three options,
1. Argue against this interpretation of the situation.
2. Accept it and use his car for work at his own expense.
3. Travel to his official base every day then drive back to the town he works in ,drive around as usual then drive back to the base to finish before driving home. (This would mean he would be driving 40 miles a day at his own expense and 80 miles at works expense and spending an extra hour of his own time travelling as well as losing an hour a day of working time at works expense)
Any suggestions?
So the mileage is calculated as if driving from your base office but you don't actually have to drive it. If the manager is insisting on him calculating mileage from the base office, and that would increase his claim by £80, then claim it. Either the manager will back down or he will pay.
Can he get his 'base' office changed to either his home so that this isn't a problem?
There's definitely an allowable expense for travel from your home to a place of work other than your normal place of business, or at least there was last year.
Can he get his 'base' office changed to either his home so that this isn't a problem?
There's definitely an allowable expense for travel from your home to a place of work other than your normal place of business, or at least there was last year.
Edited by londonbabe on Monday 20th January 07:48
The rules haven't changed.
If an individual is paid less than 45p per mile (1st 10,000 miles) for business travel, they can claim tax relief on the difference from HMRC.
If they are paid MORE than 45p per mile, HMRC will want to tax the individual under the Benefit in Kind rules on the difference.
If an individual is paid less than 45p per mile (1st 10,000 miles) for business travel, they can claim tax relief on the difference from HMRC.
If they are paid MORE than 45p per mile, HMRC will want to tax the individual under the Benefit in Kind rules on the difference.
A quick search found this:
http://www.clearandlane.co.uk/cms_downloads/Travel...
[quote]
Home based employees
Some employees work at home occasionally, or
even regularly. This does not necessarily mean
that their home can be regarded as a place of
work. There must be an objective requirement
for the work to be performed at home rather
than elsewhere, in which case trips between
home and any other workplace for the same
employment will be allowable.
If the objective requirement is not met then this
may mean that another place is determined as
a permanent workplace for example, an office
where the employee ‘regularly reports’. Therefore
any commuting cost between home and the
office would not be an allowable expense, but
trips between home and temporary workplaces
will be allowed
[/quote]
That last 'but' seems to apply here.
http://www.clearandlane.co.uk/cms_downloads/Travel...
[quote]
Home based employees
Some employees work at home occasionally, or
even regularly. This does not necessarily mean
that their home can be regarded as a place of
work. There must be an objective requirement
for the work to be performed at home rather
than elsewhere, in which case trips between
home and any other workplace for the same
employment will be allowable.
If the objective requirement is not met then this
may mean that another place is determined as
a permanent workplace for example, an office
where the employee ‘regularly reports’. Therefore
any commuting cost between home and the
office would not be an allowable expense, but
trips between home and temporary workplaces
will be allowed
[/quote]
That last 'but' seems to apply here.
Terminator X said:
4th option, call the new bloke a 
and leave?!
TX.
5th option. Refuse to do it in own car and ask for a company car, or for a hire car to be be provided. and leave?!TX.
Some other answers are confusing company expense rules and HMRC tax rules. The company can do whatever it likes, and it's very standard practice to deduct commute mileage from business mileage claims. Claiming you started the journey from the office when you didn't is likely to get you fired (and maybe prosecuted) pretty quickly.
HMRC rules say you can claim tax relief without making the commute deduction.
Munter said:
Get the company to agree he's officially based at home. Then it's all mileage from home.
Thanks, it's what I thought but we have a small local office 100 yards from his home and this is the one he uses regularly. He has tried to get the company to accept that this should be his base thereby resolving the problem, but the finance manager has blocked this, virtually accusing him of trying to manipulate the system to minimise his commute and maximise his reclaimable mileage at the company's expense. We feel it's the other way around, with the company manipulating the situation to avoid reimbursing him for the genuine 200 miles he travels on company business each week (the small local office was in fact his official base for many years and nothing has changed in his working practice, just that the company changed his base nominally for 'admin reasons'.I've got a similar job and I'm worried that they might pull the same stunt on me.
Had a similar issue in a team I previously worked in, I lived within walking distance of office so went in by foot each day, if I had a visit to do I'd do so direct from home in the morning then return direct to home and walk into office.
I claimed the mileage from home to temporary place of work as I had no work based parking and it'd take 15 minutes to reach the office by car due to traffic, yet only 10 minutes on foot.
My viewpoint was staff should claim mileage from their cars base rather than an office base (unless that is where they park) and the mileage policy should be reworded due to the fact it was technically impossible for anyone to travel from the office I was based as there was no staff parking or vehicle access so no one could calculate a journey from there unless they did a drive-by which was totally ridiculous.
End result was they forced me to adjust my mileage claims to deduct 'commuting' mileage I didn't do anyhow, so I refused to use my car for work given the wording in my employment contract only stipulated having the ability to travel but not that I must do so using my own vehicle.
I claimed the mileage from home to temporary place of work as I had no work based parking and it'd take 15 minutes to reach the office by car due to traffic, yet only 10 minutes on foot.
My viewpoint was staff should claim mileage from their cars base rather than an office base (unless that is where they park) and the mileage policy should be reworded due to the fact it was technically impossible for anyone to travel from the office I was based as there was no staff parking or vehicle access so no one could calculate a journey from there unless they did a drive-by which was totally ridiculous.
End result was they forced me to adjust my mileage claims to deduct 'commuting' mileage I didn't do anyhow, so I refused to use my car for work given the wording in my employment contract only stipulated having the ability to travel but not that I must do so using my own vehicle.
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